The Forgotten Gods
by Stonehenge
Summary: Post Game: Cocoon has been destroyed and the people are in the pains of reconstructing their lost society. Lightning rejoins the Guardian Corps to resume her dream, but finds herself in the midst of some insidious force, hellbent on killing her.
1. Busy Doing Nothing

(A/N) I've noticed that when authors write continuations to FFXIII it's mostly set two or three years after the fall of Cocoon , and magically everything is rebuilt into a thriving society. So this is written partly to be a bit different than that, but there is still all the intrigue, deceptions and the somewhat nonsensical conflict that we all love about the FF brand. This chapter is a bit of a long teaser. My idea for this story is mostly thought out, but it's not all written yet so I'll see what happens. It will be segregated into three parts generally. Part I is called 'the Beatniks.'

I apologize for spelling errors and typos. I'm a horrible typist so if you see some send me a message.

So here it is. If you review I'll be more inclined to hasten the next one. If you review...

The Forgotten Gods: Part I: the Beatniks

Busy Doing Nothing

It was all over by then but still some remained. And they, though once mighty, are now lost in strange world.

The sun rose and all across the white expanse the fallen gods lay decimated, lifeless and motionless in a field of death, contorted in their last moments as though they were great statues of those now departed, a fallacy of immortal titans all. One moves among them, one of few survivors of the once powerful line, sees the suffering the destruction of his fellows and offers a hoarse cry for vengeance.

* * *

Lightning was impatient, but she was always getting impatient these days. It was becoming a recurrent theme of each Monday morning: get up yet earlier to get in line, and wait yet longer to get the stipend. It wasn't too bad at first, get there at eight-thirty, wait only twenty-five to forty five minutes in the line to the converted GC drop ship, they would give her the gil and she could be on her merry way. The next week she got there ten minutes earlier, but it still about the same plus some extra. So Lightning got there twenty minutes earlier, but it was still the same plus some more extra. She finally gave up at seven a.m., but the wait still kept on getting longer.

She stepped out, only slightly, starring at the horde that was still waiting in front of her to the window. There were still over two dozen in her line alone assuming they're all separate, but it would be a bit of a prayer to hope that more than a few of them were together. And there were ten lines. She looked behind herself, half-glad she wasn't there with all those forsaken souls. The lines went all the way out of the LZ to behind Admin. Building J. She stole some glances of their faces, every one of them with more less the same amazement with their situation. Some were very old, some were very young, most were of medium of the two. All in the same gridlock she was enjoying. And they all had different names, ages, brothers, sisters, moms, dads, friends, all with some unique story of how they survived the greatest disaster in their memory. And it boggled her mind.

"Where in hell are they all coming from?" The curse was whispered, but she realized that enough people around her heard it to draw some disapproving eyes. She felt small tinge of embarrassment. But of course they all felt the same way.

Lightning leaned yet again against the short radio pole she had been standing by for the last part of eternity, glancing yet again at her left wrist to remind herself that she didn't wear a watch. It must be getting on three hours by then, maybe more, she thought, considering how bad her knees felt. She comforted herself that she was almost there, and it was only once a week, but she still fantasized about whipping out her gunblade and turning an orderly handout into a chaotic stick up. That wasn't possible though. She wasn't carrying it with her.

Her mind wandered over the circumstances of the Administration. The Civil Citizenry Admin., the CCA, that was hastily established when the Sanctum met its demise, hence the bad name. It was all made up of the few military heads and civilian officials that survived the downfall of there former home Cocoon. It ran and operated in exactly the same way, with exactly the same people. So the different name was almost wholly cosmetic. That's a cynic's viewpoint, and Lightning knew she had been falling in that camp lately. But there still was one important difference that she quickly remembered.

The orders this time were from people, not from fal'Cie.

Finally! The last of the line-goers that were ahead of her departed with their envelope of gil, and it was her turn. She reached into her side-pack attached her leg, noting the worn edge on one of the straps, and pulled out all the paper work, smoothing out some of creases so it looked a bit more presentable, and she walked up.

"Hello," the man behind the glass window said, betraying his own fatigue over the days work.

"Hi," she handed him the thin bundle of papers. He looked over them for a moment and Lightning hoped that this time he might just give her the envelope without asking her anything, but it never went that way.

"So you requested the stipend last time?"

"Yes."

"Did you spend it all?"

"No and…"

"You noted how much you didn't?"

"…Yes."

"How many in your unit?"

"Two, me and a friend."

"Are you the registered chief resident?"

"Yes I am." She shifted her weight to another leg.

"Are any of you in or in the process of joining the CCA, GC or PSICOM?"

"No we're not…" She breathed deeply.

"Okay. Just a moment." He left going into some back room.

"Yeah…" Lightning turned around leaning against the lower ledge of the window. It was same damn questions each time she did this. The same damn answers. One was a bit of lie. She was in the GC, or Guardian Corps. She quit but it wasn't formal. Although it didn't really matter. Almost all personal data from the Sanctum had been lost in the Fall. It occurred to her then, that perhaps all this work was an effort to rebuild all the data they had lost. Anyway it would only be an issue if she ran into someone that knew her, and that hasn't happened yet.

He finally returned and gave her the stipend, exactly as before. "Okay you get 459 this time. Have a good day."

"Yeah you too." Even Lightning noticed the thick layer of sarcasm on her reply, but the man didn't even bat an eye.

Lightning left the immediate vicinity as prisoner would from his jailers, or rather in her case the fermenting hordes of the former Cocoon citizenry. Why did she always opt to go? She'd really considered just leaving it, subsisting till a more efficient digital distribution system was finally in place. One had been promised to them, a few weeks prior. Lightning knew it had been a pipe dream to keep everyone's hopes up, so to speak, or maybe it was to quell some of the brooding discontent the was under all the people's skin. But there was no way they had the resources in place to do such a thing. The network that had connected everyone in a cashless secure economy went to crystal like the rest of the small moon they had lived on.

Lightning thought about this as she groped the money through the material of the envelope. It was back to the good old greenbacks. Oh joy! And of course they were passed out in pitiful quantities for fear of runaway inflation, but still everything was unaffordable. This was most certainly the wonderful life she had hoped for.

But at least she was free of that hell-waiting-on-earth, for another week at least. And she kept that on her mind as walked out of LZ, back through Bazaar District 1, only about two kilometers to go till she reached her housing unit, and her bed. Maybe next week she could wiggle out of it? It was little to much to hope for, that her "roommate" may actually wake up in time to get inline, which was an ironic use of words considering who her roommate was.

It was a long walk back, but this was something that Lightning could find some pleasure in. Bazaar District 1, or just district one as it really was first called, earned its name for an obvious reason: it had become one of the de facto consuming center for the settlement. Maybe it was because of proximity to LZ, but soon after a significant population was situated, eateries, small shops of various kinds, of course even some pubs had sprung up to service the needs of the recently-refugees. And though it was called Bazaar, it wasn't tents and carts, but decently constructed buildings of albeit crude but clever design. And no sooner had been built that the place became flooded with the residents. Lightning took some confidence from this. At least one part of society would always prosper.

It was busy and bustling though. Lightning found herself playing dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge again with the walking groups of people, slipping through gaps and giving quick apologizes for forcing her sharp elbows into a few passer-bys. For Lightning it was times like this that she really wished she had been a bit taller.

She was just finishing the eulogy for someone's lost pride and bruised toe, when a familiar grayish blob of hair appeared to obstruct her path.

"Hey! You're done waiting in line," Hope said, with tone of mild amazement.

"Yeah. Did you think I had gone somewhere else," she asked back.

"No, it's just that you were gone a long time."

"You're telling me about it," she checked her wrist again on instinct, only to scold herself again. "What time is it?"

"It about 11:20."

"Eleven…" She was dumbstruck; it couldn't have been that long. She grabbed his left wrist to check the timepiece he wore, and it read 11:21.

"How…" Lighting began to walk off into the crowd.

"Hey wait!" Hope said, scrambling up beside her.

"Four and a half hours…I was there at seven, before they begin handing it out and…dammit."

"I guess it was really long then, right?" he tried to join to conversation, but it was to no avail.

The storm was there.

"I swear, it's like every person just decided to go in on Monday. Who cares if they're actually scheduled for any of the other days! And they just…fucking keep coming!"

"Eh." Hope couldn't help but just grin sheepishly as the expletive caught the attention of most people around them.

"I'm spending half day just get a stipend. Like I have nothing else to do!"

"Well Light, what exactly else to you have to do?" Hope asked at his peril.

"Hey!" She grabbed hold of the front of his shirt in her fury, glaring into the kid's eyes and Hope winced. "Huh," she sighed, releasing him just as quickly as she had seized him.

"Sorry. It's just a headache every week." She began to walk again.

"I could go next week," Hope chimed in.

Lightning appreciated it but knew it was futile. "You're always asleep at the time to go." She smiled.

"I'll get up. Anyway I have an alarm on this thing," he retorted, while looking down to twiddle with his watch.

"It's alright. I can deal."

"How much did we get this time?" Hopes asked.

"The same as last time. Here," she tossed him the envelope.

"459 that's more than last time."

"Two gil more, and it probably just an accounting error. Those guys are doing it for over three hundred thousand people."

"Yeah, but it's still more," Hope still kept the optimism in his voice.

"Sure."

They walked quietly for a bit, Lightning slightly ahead as Hope walked beside, occasionally stealing glances, trying to get a sense of what was going in the former soldier's mind. It was a bit awkward, but somewhat normal. Neither them were much for small talk, or very good at it. But simple ideas are often the best ones.

"Hey," Lightning stopped as Hope walked around her to see what was looking at. "What do you say we get lunch here?"

Hope looked. It was a new place called Runaway Girl. Had a bit of a modern exotic theme that just seemed odd to Hope. There was just something presumptuous about the way the tables were set, or something like that.

"Uh, you don't think it looks too pricey?" He asked.

"Not really," Lightning responded nodding to a small chalk sign at the entrance. Lunch buffet 2 gil per table.

"Hey imagine that. Lady luck's sure on our side right? Ha!" He said excitedly running to get a table.

"Yeah, sure is." Lady luck brought back some somber memories. Lightning turned around to catch a quick glimpse at the monument, the crystallized remains of her former home, a site of lost dreams and of lost friends. Lightning kept it short though, running in after him remembering that he had all their money for the next week.

As a rule with cheap meals, and Lightning had experience, one shouldn't expect much. But this was one time at least that she could ignore it with impunity. For two gil, they were treated to a lot freshly filet fish spiced and prepared in ways Lightning never knew existed, some thinly cut and seasoned potatoes baked with cheeses into a nice casserole, plenty of rice's, stir fry and even a few deserts. It was actually among the better meals they had eaten in last several weeks, where they been at the mercy of mostly street vendors when Lightning wasn't cooking, or attempting cooking.

"This is great," Hope commented for the third time, as he went to get another helping of the beef stir fry, and Lightning was beginning to wonder if they were maybe over-eating their buffet privilege. They were hungry, and she was wanting some more of seasoned chicken, or whatever meat it was, she had discovered, but still. Best to leave a good tip.

Food was never much of an issue on Cocoon. Though they were captives of the magic wielding fal'Cie, they were well feed and content captives. Even the so-called homeless had plenty and more. Not an empty pot anywhere, even in the army. One could get by greatly without any culinary skills whatsoever. This was all out the door with the New Dawn. Finding something to eat for every mouth of few million refugees was no small task when civilization's entire infrastructure had collapsed with the fal'Cie. Lightning new how to cook, a little bit. Her repertoire was small, and not especially balanced but she and Hope weren't confined to starve or suffer meals that had gone terribly awry. Hope surprising knew some simple preparations as well, though not too far beyond the range a grilled cheese sandwich. With the small stipend that they received they also were limited in the quantity prepared items they could obtain, limited to more raw, Pulsian fruits and meats. But after all they had been through, they were at least used to it. Besides when things became too tight, they mooched off Serah and Snow in their unit.

Nevertheless, the quality of the food was enough that Lightning nearly forgot all about the trouble she had had that morning, and for the first time in a few days was thoroughly sated of her hunger. Hope especially was grateful, and kept going for more long after Lightning lost her appetite.

"Ah. This is great Lightning," he said yet again.

"Yeah, you've told me," she said chuckling as he began to put away his second desert.

"We should tell everyone about this! I mean," he took another bite, "where else are they going to find cheaper meals for less?"

"Yeah well, it's probably just promotional. I'd be surprised if it lasts that long."

"Still, we could get everyone here for lunch. And we'd all only spend two gil total."

"I don't think the owner would appreciate that very much."

"Yeah but…" he made a gargled noise and began to cough, as he had choked on the piece of desert he had place in his mouth.

Lightning turned her head away and covered her mouth, doing her very best to hide the wide grin that was forming there. She pushed his drink toward him. "Here have some water for that throat."

Hope did so, proceeding to empty the entire content of the glass in one drink. Lightning watched and could not contain her giggles anymore. The charm of the moment was just too much. After all the strife this grayed young man had experience at least some normalcy was there, the charms and excitement of the uneventful kind. Even though they had lost everything, moments such as these could make them feel as though they had gained much more than that.

"So Light," the words shook her out of her daze.

"Yeah what?"

"Just what are you going to do the rest of today?"

"Oh," she responded, sitting back her chair. It was a question she was hoping to avoid, but also knew it had to come up. It was the same question they asked themselves everyday this arrived and were settled in the cozy Units. What is there to do everyday when all to do has turned to crystal?

"Lightning?" Hope said when she trailed off.

"I don't know Hope. I hadn't really planned anything beyond this morning," she responded, putting her head and starring into the sky, hoping for some divine intervention

"Oh. I was just wondering. I don't really have much to do either."

"Hm," that was the situation. There were only so many options in a refugee colony. Rebuilding, and more rebuilding, that's what the Sanctum was doing day in and day out. Again and again in a tedious cycle.

"You know it's impressive," Hope remarked.

"What?" Lightning asked, as she was only half paying attention.

"What the Sanctum has done. Or…I guess the CCA. It's impressive how much they've built so fast."

Lightning glanced around at the structures of Bazaar 1, they looked at then at the fairly sizable Administration buildings and then at the under construction apartments and Civic Center toward the edge of the settlement, not the mention the hundreds of thousands of the Units, or Utility Non-Permanent Shelter, to house the few million people that were ready in under a month. It was a lot considering the barely three months since the fall of Cocoon. One could say it was even miraculous.

"Yeah I guess," she agreed.

"I just wonder how, you know?"

"What?"

"It just, seems like it was too quick. Like they knew it would happen," Hope responded.

_Knew. _The word resonated in her mind for moment. Maybe they did? But how was a harder question. The fal'Cie knew Cocoon would be destroyed, but why would they care to make preparations for the people they were sacrificing? It was a puzzling question.

"Yeah. It does make you think that someone in the Sanctum knew Cocoon might be destroyed. But…who knows Hope? Maybe we're just not giving PSICOM enough credit?"

"Well, I just think it's strange," Hope relented.

"It's all strange Hope. Three months seems like lifetimes ago. I can't even imagine what it would've been like otherwise," she, almost to herself. Fate, it was the least favorite of subjects. The Fall and the events the precedent it, the Purge, the War of Transgression, and the fact that she had decided to stay in Bodhum all those years ago; it was the convergence of these and multiple small threads that sealed their doom, that made them l'Cie and bound them to destiny. It was all strange, all special, if even the smallest thing had been different their lives would be changed for all time. Three months ago she felt as if she had conquered her destiny, become the master of her fate. But it's incredible how fast that feeling can fade.

"I've been thinking," Hope said after a few moments, and Lightning could read the reluctance in his tone.

"Yeah."

"Um, well I think maybe…now that all the fal'Cie are gone that I might…uh," Hope's eyes suddenly became evasive, looking at everything except Lightning, "…you know…join the army."

Lightning waited a moment, making sure she had understood his choppy sentence correctly.

"Oh." She couldn't think of much to say. She didn't really understand the reason for this. Did he feel like he needed her permission? "Does this have something to do with me?"

"No!" he blurted out. "No it's just been on my mind for awhile now. I mean the fal'Cie are all gone now, and I already know how to fight so…" he said eying her for some sort of reaction.

"You'll do fine Hope," she said.

"Really?" he asked, simultaneously knocking some of his silver were on the floor.

Lightning rolled her eyes. "Yes Hope. I'm not just saying. Trust me, the army isn't as tough and brutal as they make themselves out to be. You've already been through a lot more than most."

"Yeah. And I also feel like I need to do something, to, you know, help make things right."

Lightning half admired the naïve the sentiment of his. At least he wasn't becoming cynical like she was. "Don't get too worked up yet. You got a few years to go before they'll let you join."

"I know. It's seventeen right? The age?"

She nodded. "And six months."

Hope took the correction with little trace of disappointment. "How old were you we joined the Guardian Corps?"

"I," it was a natural question. Still Lightning wasn't quite up to talk about herself at that moment. "I was eighteen. It wasn't long after I left school."

"Yeah," was Hope replied with a distant tone.

Lightning understood exactly where he was coming from. During the last three months they had all been busy doing nothing. There was some excitement over the 'upcoming' wedding, however with the whole world upside down the date has been pushed to whenever. At first it was a pleasant reprieve, but it wasn't long before the long days started to merge into each other, and time itself seemed to fly but at the same instant stand completely still. She was beginning to feel anxious about it, and apparently Hope was feeling the same. Lightning regretted that there just wasn't much she could do about it.

"Now that I am thinking about it, have you heard from your dad yet?" she changed the subject.

Hope seemed a bit reluctant to answer. "Uh no. Well not since last week. He's still in Settlement D, as far as I know. He said he would call soon as he could, but the lines keep going down."

"Well it's not so easy to rebuild a communications network for a few million people. Plus D is pretty far away from here," she pondered.

"You think all the creatures out there are taking down the lines?"

"Maybe, but for all we know it could be another fal'Cie not fond of the way we're changing the landscape."

"Yeah, well since when do listen to them?" Hope said jokingly.

"Right. Well, by the time they get the transit systems up, they should be done with most of the housing. I'll bet your dad will be able to get you guys one of the first ones," Lightning said off hand.

"Uh…" There was the sound of something crashing in the restaurant that her Lightning's attention for a moment. "Yeah, but who knows when they'll finally finish all of them right?"

Lightning got sense that he was going to say something else, but she couldn't help but keep glancing toward the source of the noise. Maybe her instincts were just acting up?

Well anyway they had been there long enough.

"Well I'm satisfied. You ready?" she asked.

"Yeah. Are we just going back?"

"Somewhere else you want to go?"

"Oh, nah. Not really."

"You sure?"

"Ah, well…" Hope scratched the back of his head in an almost cookie-cutter display of indecisiveness.

"Do you not want to tell me?"

"No…well actually, Maqui and Yuj invited me to go sight seeing," Hope said sheepishly.

"Sight seeing? Where abouts?" Lightning asked.

"Um…I don't know. I'm actually not sure if that's what they're really doing," Hope admitted.

Lightning wasn't surprised. In many ways those two were typical juveniles. Of all of Snow's compatriots she trusted them the least. But Snow wouldn't let them haul Hope of to anywhere overly dangerous. Plus, Hope wasn't exactly helpless, not after all they had been through.

"Go Hope."

"What"

"I said 'go.' You've been help up inside for the last few days. You should get out. Have some fun," she realized how much like a parent she was sounding at that moment.

"Yeah but…what are you gonna do?"

"I'll be fine Hope. Don't worry."

"You sure?"

"Yes. Go," she feigned some annoyance and Hope seemed to get the picture.

"Uh, okay. We should be back before dark, I think at least."

"Okay," she said and Hope began to walk away towards the south of the settlement. Lightning watched his hesitant progress, waiting for him around, which he did just after a few steps.

"Uh Lightning. About before…um about moving back in with my dad, it's not that I don't want to but…it's just that I've liked living with you…for past few months. It's been fun…I'm mean it."

Lightning's face hung frozen for a moment. She had wondered why reacted that way, but she didn't think that would be the reason. She felt her cheeks grow a bit flushed. It been a while since she had gotten compliment with such sincerity.

"Me too Hope. I've had fun too. Thanks."

"Okay, I'll see ya later," he said, this time running off toward… well wherever he was going.

"See ya," she was really speaking to herself, as Hope was already well outside of earshot.

The seeming recklessness with which he still ran made her rethink the wisdom of an outing with Yuj and Maqui, especially if there wasn't someone going to semi-supervise the lot. But, what of it? She wasn't his mother, and he was as old as she was when she began to off on her own. Lighting took some satisfaction in that fact, and the fact that he was making friends, getting outside now and then, and starting a new life for himself. She was doing a mighty fine job as his sort of "steward," and why not have some pride about that?

Still, she never really did give him an answer to that question: what was she going to do now?

All the world seemed to go by. She stood in the middle of a "street" crossing and took some stock of the hundreds of people milling about in the throng. Most of them were with someone, or several someones. Most were talking, laughing or holding on as to not lose each other. There were obvious fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, best friends and buddies, boyfriends and girl friends, and many more entire households.

What exactly did she have? There was of course her sister, but Serah's renewed romance made things somewhat awkward when she was with them. At least she felt a bit awkward. It was the same is she was wife Sazh and his son, and it was even that somewhat with Hope. The invisible wall that seemed to surround her was all too familiar. It was something Lightning had tired to leave behind, many times. But whether in the form of austerity or shyness, it just seemed to always find its way back to her.

In times like this she missed the rigorousness of the day to day in the GC. But would really be any different?

Still, why wallow in that funk? The blues were always something better sounding we one was alone. And Lightning began to rest of the two kilometers back to her unit.

The grueling-ness of the walk back at least took some of her anxiety away. The Sun had seemed to reach its zenith and just hang like an annoying fly, one in the perfect position so that she would get minimal shade. And of course in the cool of the morning she had overdressed, and was now sweating into the recently cleaned cotton of the worn sweater vest she wore. It already had a bit of an odor. Still she kept the pace high despite the discomfort. She was tougher than this. Normally she would've at least jogged the distance, and she certain she do a dead sprint long enough to reach her unit. Well, maybe not the whole 2k. Her heart rate slightly up and fresh perspiration on her forehead, the relative coolness of the living room was quite welcome.

She went atop the platform, to her door, key inserted, pin entered, door closed, sweater off over a chair, and her ass on the couch as she began to remove her footwear, since her feet by that point of the day were bathed in salty-sweat. They were soon thrown a few meters away, and there is something pleasurable about the feel of carpet on tired bare feet.

Lightning stretched her arms over her head, spreading out her legs, and sinking down in her chair as she did so. With small amount of soreness from standing all day, the action felt heavenly. Lightning let gravity have its way and fell into lying down on the couch. She felt the bulge of the stipend in her satchel, and quickly removed the entire apparatus and placed it roughly on the coffee table before her. All the business of the day was done, she didn't need to have it on anymore. She could relax without fear of consequence; have the only business be the business of doing nothing. And there was nothing to fear in the coming morning.

Lightning looked at the sparse room before, at the few belongings of herself and Hope scattered around. Yes there was nothing to fear, but there was also nothing to look forward too.

"Ahh." Lightning pushed herself up, suddenly bored with the relaxed posture she had taken. She should try to be somewhat productive. Surely there was something she could be doing. Something that could engross her for the rest of the day; something that would after some time benefit her greatly, that she would back upon and be glad she went to the trouble. But like usual the room was as plane as ever.

The units weren't much to begin with. The basic design included a small living area in front, with just enough room for some nominal pieces of furniture. Most came with a television, but there was no broadcast, beyond infrequent announcements by the CCA. There was a stripped down kitchen attached to living area, small hallway connected to two small bedrooms. Small, meaning there was enough room to walk in, lie down, get up and out and not really anything else. Some other versions had a single large bedroom for two, but theirs was the "bachelor" version. A single shower and toilet flanked the ends of the hallway, each next to a sink. That was it.

So what to do?

Lightning looked around enough to convince herself there was indeed nothing of worth, and fell back into laying down, feeling yet more defeated than before. She would just have to find someway to kill the time, and where was that going to come from?

There was something. Well, it would be hard for Lightning to call it something. She got up and fished them out from the disorder of her room. It was just a couple of books, beach reading really, even though they weren't anywhere near a beach since the whole world came to Pulse. She and Hope had chanced by a sort of yard sale, where some vendors where selling off thousands of titles that had survived somehow and made it down to Pulse, at dirt cheap prices too. She guessed that probably the doing the new CCA, trying to give something back to despaired people of Cocoon. Well, she wasn't complaining.

She brought all of them with her to the couch, reading over the covers. She didn't know any of the titles very well, other than they were bestsellers so they must have a little entertainment value. She had chosen them almost circumspectly. She never really bought books for pleasure that often, or almost ever. Unless it was for some manual that she needed, she almost never went into bookstores. Well whatever, it was only to pass the time.

So she picked one up, no better than others and began to read. This one concerned a female protagonist, a sort of run-of-mill romantic comedy. Girl hates life, girl meets boy, girl loses boy, life-changing revelations ensue—breathtaking. At least that was the plot Lighting extrapolated from reading the first five pages. She moaned over a miserable job, and looked forlornly on an equal miserable future, with each event of the day compounding it into a never ending nightmare. Lightning could relate to that. She had transportation issues commuting to her place of work. Lightning could relate to that too. But all the despair over trifle annoyances, that made Lightning want to punch the fictional character.

Even with the pedestrian storyline, Lightning forced herself to keep reading, determined to at least use up an hour with this. And besides it might get better once the exposition is done. Maybe then there be some sort of plot developing, instead of a host of character studies. But after awhile Lightning found herself glancing at her bare wrist again.

Lighting tossed the book aside with a resounding sigh, and went into a nice decrescendo ending with the word, "Fuck."

She was never much of a reader anyway. Her mother was the one with the gene. Serah got it in spades, but not her. It wasn't that she hated stories, but there was something too un-stimulating about reading that she wasn't able to stand. She counted her blessings that she had the wisdom to join the army for her career. Well, she did have the wisdom, once upon a time in Cocoon.

Still there was the question, what was she going to do?

Lightning flipped onto her back still lying on the couch. There wasn't much reason to get up. There were the other books she had but she doubted they would be anymore stimulating than the first. So what?

She could go out, of course. But to where? Visit Snow and Serah, maybe? Sazh and Dajh, probably not. Go out alone to one of the bars, definitely not. There was a lot she could do, the real question was what she wanted.

What did she want for herself? The answer to that was not forthcoming to say the least. It was a question that was not localized to that day even. What about tomorrow? She had not appointments or plans. What was she going to do? What about the day after that? What about two weeks from now? What about a year, where did she see her life going a year from then, a year from lounging about on her couch on her temporary emergency housing? Was all that she had worked for, was all the strife she had gone through from batting gods to defying fate, was that all going to end in a life of early retirement at the age of twenty-one?

Lightning knew that wasn't going to be the case. Somehow, by chance or by design it was going to change for her. She thought of all the myriad of ways, all the things she could do in New World of Pulse. She kept herself busy enough that she didn't even notice that she was falling asleep.

The room seemed a lot brighter, that was the first thing that occurred to her. The wall across seemed ablaze with the reflection from the Sun. Lightning rolled over to her back to it, feeling the moist cloth of her shirt stick her with all the sweat it had absorbed. It was altogether just unpleasant. Enough to tell her it was time to wake up.

"Crap," she complained to herself.

From the way the sunlight shown she could tell that she had been asleep for at least several hours, around four was best she could tell without a watch. Yet she didn't feel rested at all, just a bit miserable. Her head ached slightly, and she felt incredibly thirsty. She hated when this sort of thing happened.

Several cups of water later, she felt a bit better though still very slimy with the layer of sweat that coated her body. She didn't adjust the AC before she fell asleep. She didn't like to use it that much because the CCA charged for excess use of utilities. But it was fiendishly hot in the unit, and she just wasn't going to take it this time. She punched in a reasonable temperature and listened to hum of the fans as the air conditioner became operational. One of the few redeeming aspects of the units, the AC was quick to work.

She took a seat at the small table, away from the window and the sun, sipping her fifth cup of water. She still felt rotten. How could she have let herself sleep for so long? She hadn't felt that lazy in a long time, and she didn't like it.

She pouted with her despair for a few minutes, when the light hum of electrical motors of the air conditioning was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Great," she muttered. Not that she was against company but she didn't exactly feel presentable. No time to check.

Lightning opened the door half expecting to see Hope standing there. He did misplace his key often, or even his pin combination, so it was usually him. Lightning was half surprised to find instead Lebreau standing there, one of Snow's compatriots. Why in hell was she there?

"Hey neighbor," she said with so much cheerfulness that Lightning's headache got worse for a moment.

"What?"

Lebreau looked Lightning over a moment and seemed to understand. "Oh…sorry. I just thought come by to visit. We live so close together now but we hardly ever talk."

"Okay," Lightning replied. They did live close together; Lightning recalled talking about that with her some months before. She had completely forgotten it.

"Maybe I should've called in first."

"It's fine. I was…I wasn't doing anything." It was the truth.

"Okay well," she held up a couple of bottles of chardonnay and a pair of glasses in bag. "I got booze. You look like you could use some."

Lightning almost laughed. She hadn't looked at herself in the mirror but she could the tangled mess that was on top of her head. And this time looks were right, she was feeling like a mess. It wasn't her habit to relax via drinking but…why not?

"Sure," she propped open the door wide, allowing for easy entry.

"So this is your place. You know it looks exactly like mine, except it's switched," Lebreau said while putting the contents of the bag onto the table.

"Yeah I guess," Lightning said.

"Yeah," Lebreau smiled in agreement. She pulled out the glasses filling two and handing one to Lightning.

"Thanks."

"Don't worry about it. So might I ask what've you been up to? You look really frazzled Light."

"Um, not really anything. I just fell asleep on the couch."

"Oh yeah. Well that explains the bed hair." She took a sip of the chardonnay. "Drink up. C'mon I didn't pour that glass just so you could hold it."

Lightning had just been holding it. But whole scene in mind, two girls with two large bottles of wine holding two full glasses, all made her feel a bit, well, slutty. Especially with way Lebreau chose to dress. But it wasn't like anyone was watching, so why not be daring?

She put her head back and took a bug swig of the glass. It was bitter, just like most alcohol. Her throat seemed to sizzle as it went down her throat. And almost immediately her head "buzzed," and her checks flushed with color. It was just a bit more intense than she was ready for, and couldn't help but cough at the end of it. She really didn't drink that much.

Lightning looked up to see Lebreau clapping her hands while trying to suppress her laughter. "I think we have a winner! You can take it slow Light, we're not having a race."

Lightning tried, but couldn't help the embarrassment. She knew how red her usually pale checks must look at that moment. "I don't really drink that much."

"Yeah I figured, since you're looking after Hope. Though I can't say I wasn't drinking at his age. Where is he anyway?"

"He went out with Yuj and Maqui someplace."

Lebreau rolled her eyes. "Oh." She took an even larger gulp of the wine than Lightning. "Well I'm sure they won't get into too much trouble. Hope I mean. The other two will be lucky if they don't break anything."

Lightning took a sip. "Are they reckless?"

"Not really reckless, but more…stupid. I'm not trying to worry you though. They'll be fine," Lebreau said finishing off the rest of her glass.

Lightning wasn't sure she believed her. "Okay," taking a sip of her own glass. She was beginning to get used to it.

"Here," Lebreau said, "you're almost done with that." She filled Lightning's glass to full again.

"Thanks," she said observing all the alcohol. "Um how much did this cost?"

"The chardonnay? Oh, didn't actually cost me anything. I was buying some glass-wear from this guy in Bazaar and he just threw it in. Said he didn't want it."

"Oh."

"Yeah it was cool. Anyway alcohol isn't that actually that expensive. You can get a couple of bottles wine like these for under thirty gil. It's one of the few things they actually have a lot of."

"Really?" Lightning wasn't sure she believed that either. But she didn't really do much shopping.

"Yeah I'm serious. It's all the other stuff I'm having problems with. Mixes, fruits, glasses, hard wear, all that is a huge headache," Lebreau lamented.

"I get that," Lighting commented. It seemed everyone was a bit frustrated with something. "So you're trying to rebuild your place?"

"Hell yeah. I'm not going to let the end of the world screw me over, right?" She held up her glass to Lightning's.

Maybe it was the alcohol, but Lightning found it funny. "Cheers," she replied, and they both emptied the rest into their stomachs.

"Overall it's going well," Lebreau continued. "Once everything settles down the only thing to do is to scout out a new location. It won't nearly be the same as Bodhum though."

"Well you can't just build a beach," Lightning commented.

"Yeah, yeah. We're on Pulse now. We got that memo right."

"Right."

"Who knows where the ocean even is on this place?" Lebreau added, while taking a sip.

"If there even is one."

Lebreau laughed. "Yeah right. Cheers to that."

They emptied their glasses again.

"Oh," Lebreau began while refilling their glasses. "I guess I should tell you. Snow's saying it's definitely going to be the end of August. You know…" She waved her hands in the air.

"Okay. Just like it was definitely going to be the end of May, or the end of June?"

"Yeah, I know. But he's sure this time. Even more sure than usual."

"I don't see how that's possible," Lightning remarked, causing Lebreau to spit out some of her chardonnay.

"Yeah. Don't worry this time it's much more thought out. By then they'll have the transit lines up between the settlements and the people will be able to move into _actual_ places to live. It'll be much easier to plan things once everything is a little more...uh..." Lebreau grasped for the word, "permanent."

Lightning looked deep into the swirling liquid in her glass. "Sure. I'll just wait for Serah to call me."

"Oh come on. She's your sister. You're going to be a big part of this."

"I'm not exactly a wedding planner," Lightning took another sip.

"So, like the rest of us are? You can still help Light. Besides Serah will want to know what you think."

"I don't know about that," Lightning said, then drank a bit more while looking down at the floor.

Lebreau rolled her eyes. "She will. She does. Honestly the both of you should talk to each other a bit more. Actually get to know your younger sister…"

"After the honeymoon. Maybe," Lightning added.

Lebreau gave up trying to convince her. "Drink your wine!" She ordered, and they both laughed.

Lightning finished her glass, placing it on the table.

"More please," as Lightning spoke she involuntary belched, smelling the alcohol she had just downed on her breath. Normally she didn't balk at that short of thing, but she didn't help but cover her mouth as the embarrassment washed over her.

Lebreau looked perfectly bemused but then chuckled. "Well I think we can say officially that you're drunk. Already too we haven't been drinking that long."

Lightning felt a bit defensive at first. "I'm not," but even she could the slight slur that was beginning to appear in her speech. And from the way Lebreau starred at her and the general "fuzziness" she was feeling she knew the truth. The sun hadn't even totally set yet. "Well, I'm not that bad."

"Yeah," Lebreau sassed.

Lightning suddenly felt like turning the tables. "Hey you've had just as much as me."

"Sure but I have more tolerance."

"Bullshit."

Lebreau smiled widely. "Alright then…" She poured the rest of the open bottle equally in both their glasses. "We're done with this handle." She then reached down and picked up the second, slightly larger chardonnay. "First one to toss it?"

Lightning was positively glowing with excitement at the challenge. This reminded her of the old days in GC. It must be the alcohol. "What does the winner get?"

"How about the loser had to say something humiliating to Hope when he gets back?"

Lightning was bit suspicious but also intrigued. "Say what?"

Instead of saying it, Lebreau took a pen from her waist pocket and grabbed a sheet of paper from a pile of disarrayed forms from the trashcan, wrote it on the back and showed it to Lightning, who closed her eyes and shook her head. Why did she think of that?

"Okay," Lightning agreed.

"Let's drink to it," Lebreau offered. And they chipped their glasses and gulped down the whole contents of their glasses. It stun her stomach a little, but Lightning was ready fro the long haul.

"More?" Lebreau asked.

Lightning nodded. "How many brain cells are we going to kill doing this?"

Lebreau laughed while pouring the wine. "Not enough."

It lasted a few hours. Several hours in fact. They started out fast, a few downing whole glasses but they both slowed it down, lest they become the one to get sick first. They started to reminisce of old times in Cocoon. School stories, stories of drunks in the bar, stories of Lebreau drinking, stories of Lighting drinking (little bit) with the Guardian Corps, story of when Lightning caught Serah drinking, many stories of Snow drinking, anything really to do with drinking was all told, punctuated by a few dirty jokes.

One Lightning particularly liked as Lebreau told it:

"Oh crap, we had this girl to that used to come in bar. Well, we used to say if this girl was a road sign it would say 'Open Trench.'" Lightning laughed for almost half an hour.

Another favorite:

"I was tending, not that long ago, one of our regulars was just completely shitfaced. Anyway this woman, who you know is pretty…big, walks up to the bar and he looks at her and just shouts to the entire bar 'Man the harpoons!'" Lightning almost cried.

The whole even seemed to fly by, spiraling downwards in an endless array of conversations, laughter, and booze, till it left the both of them slumped in their chairs near empty glasses in front of them, both ready to pass out, toss their stomach contents or both at the same time.

"Okay…maybe this was a little stupid," Lebreau said drunkenly at one point, Lightning remembered.

"Yeah." Lightning thought it was a bit of an understatement. She's felt extreme exhaustion in her life a few times in her life, but she couldn't remember ever feeling that spent, or head so, well, 'ballooned.' She still felt like she should drink the rest of glass though and did.

Lebreau did the same. Then poured the rest of the chardonnay into both their glasses. "Well we're done with this handle. I thought…that I had another one though," she commented looking around under the table.

"That was the other one," Lightning reminded her.

"Oh that's right. Ha this was a bit stupid of us."

"I heard you the first time," Lightning replied, and both giggled like the drunken girls they were.

"So when's Hope supposed to get home?" Lebreau asked.

Lightning had almost forgotten about him. She suddenly began to get worried. Didn't he say he was going to be back by now?

"He said by dark. I wonder what happened?"

"Yeah that's those two. They're fine. I bet they ended up going riding with Gadot, or something like that. Snow might be with them too. He'll probably be back late."

"Yeah," even in her drunkenness, she still felt confident that Hope was okay. He's been out alone in Pulse before. He'll stay safe. She wasn't so sure about herself though. She eyed the trash can in the corner. She didn't feel that bad yet, that could change very quickly.

It wasn't so bad though, she philosophized to herself. What was going to be a quiet, tedious and above uneventful evening turned out to be a lot of fun, at least so far. Lebreau and her turned out to be much more alike then she had ever thought before. Though she was sure the alcohol had something to do with that. But it didn't change the fact that they had laughed the hours away together. In truth she was a bit envious of Lebreau. The reason why was because Lebreau seemed to have a plan. She knew what she was going to do the next day. She new what she was gong to do the next week. She had goal in other words and that was the thing Lightning was lacking. That was the thing she wanted most at that moment, something to work toward, something to gain from all the time wasted.

Lightning didn't know but the all the self-examination was appearing on her face, and despite the booze Lebreau took notice.

"Hey! What has you down? Sadness isn't allowed during these things," she mumbled loudly.

Lightning as always downplayed it initially. "Nothing."

"Bullshit," Lebreau retorted.

"I'm fine," Lightning tried again.

"No. You're thinking about something, something and that something's got to go down. But we're drunk so you have to talk about your problems. It's a rule."

The reasoning sounded good to Lightning. "I…" It seemed clear in her mind, but the words to describe it were suddenly hard to come by. "I don't what to do?"

"Oh," Lebreau said sagely. "It's about a guy or…"

"No," Lightning groaned, wringing her hands through her hair. "I mean…you have your place and NORA and Snow has Serah and…and…."

"Oh you're having a pseudo-midlife crisis!"

"Yeah!" Agreed at first but then on second thought she was no where close to middle age. "No…sort of. I don't what I want to do anymore. I used to but…it's all gone now."

"No it's not. Come on Light, you're a soldier. You protected your sister," Lebreau reminded her.

"She doesn't need me. Not anymore," Lightning said with such sadness that Lebreau was tongue-tied for a moment.

"Oh course she does. She's not married yet…and still what makes you think she doesn't need you?"

"She's got Snow."

"Yeah, buy you're her sister. You've known her since birth. You saw her walk for the first time, and all that crap. Snow didn't. Plus he's a guy. You know they don't know anything right?"

Lightning couldn't help but laugh at that. "Yeah but…"

"But what? I don't mean this that way it sounds, but you have bigger balls than any I know. And that's saying something."

Lightning had to put her head in hands at that comment. "Yeah that does sound a little weird."

"I mean it Lightning…well not in that way! Ahhhhh! Let me ask you something okay?"

"Okay."

"Okay. Why'd you become a soldier in the first place?"

"Uh," Lightning groaned again. It felt so long ago, three years. Whole worlds had literally come to an end in that time. Everything was so different back then. She was so different. "I was…protecting Serah, I guess."

"Yeah, but is that it? You didn't _have _to become a soldier to do that."

"Uh," Lightning felt like she was being grilled. Intense thought and copious amounts of wine were not doctor recommended combinations. "I don't know, I…mmmh," she sort of had an answer but she didn't like it that much. "I wanted to be strong."

"For Serah?"

"Yeah but…also just to be strong. I don't know. I liked the idea of being a tough person. Being a soldier. Being someone that's professionally tough…A that's sounds stupid." And it really did sound stupid.

"I know what you mean," Lebreau said, but Lightning still felt her point wasn't getting across.

"Just…I like knowing how to fight. I like being able to handle myself. And I like advancement...I'm a terrible person."

"No you're not. You're a great person, by any standard," Lebreau complimented very fiercely.

Lightning felt her face get just little more red. "Thanks."

"You're welcome! And I have a solution," she proclaimed.

"What?"

"You should rejoin the Guardian Corps."

"No," Lightning said immediately, almost like a kneejerk reaction.

"Why not?"

"I—they won't let me. I can't, not with the l'Cie thing."

"You're not a l'Cie anymore. Your mark's gone."

"Yeah but…ah…I've killed people. I mean…I fought against them. They're not going to let someone who's done that rejoin."

Lebreau put her head back over the edge of her chair, taking a deep breath. "Let me tell you something. No one remembers any of you. And the Purge, everyone just wants to pretend the whole thing didn't happen. It's pretty much common knowledge that the fal'Cie were using us. So everyone pretty much just wants to forget the past. Trust me, I was labeled a possible l'Cie, and no one in CCA or anything has said a thing when placed an order the other day. Most of the records were lost and those that weren't they've been destroyed. No one cares anymore. No one wants to care anymore."

Lightning had to look anyway from Lebreau's eyes. In one way or another she what Lebreau was saying. It was plain that no one cared about Pulse l'Cie when everyone was living on Pulse. Her face and Hope's had been broadcasted to everyone in Cocoon yet no one had recognized them were ever they went. They were all anonymous. But she was still afraid, that was the truth. After all the laws she had broken, after the god defying quest she had undertaken, she was afraid to go through all that again. It was right at this moment that she realized the contradiction she was harboring: she craved action and adventure, but she was too frightened to seek it out. Hypocrisy was never something she was okay with.

Lebreau noticed the rapid thought going through mind. "Hey I don't mean you have to make up your mind now. I mean…we're really drunk. Just think about it okay?" Lebreau asked raising her class containing the last o f the chardonnay.

Lightning still felt a bit uneasy, uncertain. But she didn't have to make a decision. That at least was mildly comforting. She raised her glass to Lebreau's. "Okay."

"Okay!" And they both drank the last drink, the final nail in the coffin, because Lightning's head and stomach were telling her that the night was about to die. It was definitely the most painful one of the night, but the last one is supposed to go down hard right?

They both gagged and coughed after that one. Lightning found herself laying her head down on the table. She raised it enough to say to Lebreau, "I don't think you should drive home tonight."

"Ha! Yeah, I think we past that point a long time ago. Oh crap…" She joined Lightning with her head on the table for a few moments before looking up at Lightning, who for the first time saw how bloodshot Lebreau's eyes were. "Guess I'm going to be sleeping on your couch for a few hours."

Lightnin then felt the need to be hospitable. "No! You can have my bed. The sheets have just been cleaned. Here." She got up to walk, but lost balanced as her foot was caught in the chair leg sending her into the wall. She could hear Lebreau laughing behind her.

"Yeah. Someone's had a bit too much," she getting up. But it only took one step before she fell into Lightning, the both of them of ending up against the wall. This time it was the table leg.

"Someone else has had bit too much," Lightning retorted. The giggles continued as they made their wall in a series of stumbles to Lightning's small bedroom, where they both fell onto the bed.

"Dammit Light, you could've at least bought me dinner first," Lebreau commented.

Lightning tried desperately not to dignify that with a laugh, as she strenuously tried to get herself up. "Go to sleep."

"Sorry, I had to. Good night!" Lebreau said to Lightning as she closed the door behind her.

It wasn't easy walking. After sitting down for several hours and getting deep into inebriation Lightning's legs felt as sturdy as jello walking the couple of meters back to the living area. She made it to doorway where she braced herself after almost falling. She huddled against it for a moment, letting out the laugh she had held in from Lebreau's joke. That prompted her to think of all the others she had told that evening and that kept her laughing against the wall for several minutes.

She eventually made across the room, where she let herself fall like recently cut tree onto the couch, just like she had earlier that day. Lying down the muddled-ness suddenly amplified. It seemed she could almost feel the pressure of the blood as it rushed through her brain with every heartbeat. But all-in-all she felt elated. What had been a drudgery of a day, turned into a serendipitous evening. It had been awhile since she had that much fun. Lightning could barely remember having another sort of "girls night" as this one. She quickly decided that she probably never did.

She rolled onto her back, observing the room. It was almost exactly the way it had been, save for the wine bottles and glasses, and the sweater she had draped over the chair when had home. The light over the table was still on, but she quickly decided to let Hope turn it off when he came. She took the fact that he had still not come home that he was probably having a good time, hopefully at least no pun intended.

The prompted something that she couldn't place at first. The bet! Both of them hadn't gotten sick, and all the booze was gone. Felt somewhat disappointed and glad. She was disappointed because that meant no one won. She was glad because at least she didn't lose. And she grimaced as she thought about what she would have to say to Hope if she did.

And then there was the other thing, the original problem. Lebreau was right, Lightning knew it. There was no reason to fear rejoining the GC, but she still was afraid. She hated that fact. She had been an l'Cie. She had fought fal'Cie. She had defied fate. And she was afraid of her own past. This wasn't her. It wasn't the person she wanted to be. And she knew there was only one thing she do to rid herself of it, the only question was how was she going to Hope and the others, and Serah. What would they think? That she feared much, much more than death.

"Yeah." It was all things she should about sober though. She grabbed a small blanket that was draped over the couch for decoration, good enough considering how warm it was, got comfortable on her side and closed her eyes.

Her lips curled into a small smile. "Open trench."

* * *

"Lightning," someone was speaking, but it didn't occur to her who it was. She was tired. Lightning's head had never felt so heavy. There was no way she was getting up.

"Lightning," he said again in a loud whisper. There was also something else, a slight sense of urgency. But who could it be anyway?

"Light-ning!" A grasped her shoulder and shook her. That brought her bit closer to reality. She groaned, her eyes opening to the dimmed back of the couch, but they begged to be closed as soon as she did.

He by then had groan impatient, and there were a few footsteps right before the blinds above her opened to reveal the penetrating daylight. Lightning winced as though she had been underground for the past month, shielding her eyes as she rolled over away from the window. Whoever it was, he got what she wished. She was awake.

"Ah! Hope? What…" The room seemed so bright she barley see anything. The table, the television, everything was obscured except the shadowy body leaning in toward her.

"Hey! There you are."

"Wh—what time is it?"

"It's just past nine. Uh I just got back actually. We ended up staying at Serah and Snow's. But why are you sleeping on the couch? Who's in your room?"

Lightning was too distracted by the aching of her own head to answers. She had never had a real hangover, first time for everything. But almost on cue Lebreau slowly stumbled out of Lightning's room, looking zombie-like as she scanned the room.

"Oh shit," she muttered as she noticed Hope standing in the center in the room. "Hi Hope."

"Hey…"

"I'm just going to use the bathroom okay," she said, disappearing into the hallway.

"Uh sure," Hope responded.

Lightning sat up, putting her head in her hands. All the fun of the previous night was distant memory. Not only her head but her stomach just felt terrible, almost as though she had just drank of few liters of acid. But that's sort of what she did. She thought to stand up but immediately decided against it. She felt much more inclined to just curl back up on the couch.

"Light—uh," began to ask.

"What Hope?"

"Did you have a party last night?" he asked sounding somewhat worried.

Lightning groaned with a heavy breath. It wasn't a party, by far, but she wasn't exactly sure how to explain it. The growing sickening feeling wasn't helping either.

"No but…" she spied around for the trash can. She wasn't going to be able to hold in for much longer. Luckily enough it was only an arms length from the couch. "…but."

"We just got really drunk Hope," Lebreau answered, having returned from the bathroom.

"O-kay," Hope said awkwardly, eyeing Lightning who was sinking her face lower and lower to the trashcan.

"Did you have a good time?" Lebreau asked.

"Yeah. We flew around the whole Plateau. It's huge by the way, probably over fifty kilometers across. We ended up not getting back till late so we just…" Lightning was listening, trying her best to distract herself from the nausea. But with each word hope said the feeling got deeper and deeper. Lightning's heart began to beat faster in grim anticipation of what she knew was coming. This was not going to be pleasant.

The first bit of bile almost shot out her mouth like a cannon, Lightning felt herself struggling just to keep her head in place over the trashcan The first ended quickly, leaning her gasping and gagging for breath over the mouth. She felt Hope's hands clutch her shoulders as the second wave came, thankfully not as violent as the first but it left her in the same state. This repeated a few times before Lightning was confident enough it was all over. She rolled back onto couch, thankful that the nausea was finally gone.

Hope still had his hands on her shoulders, frantically asking her if she was alright. It was perfectly reasonable, she did sound like she was dying.

"I'm fine," she brushed off his hands.

He wasn't convinced so Lebreau had to come in and reassure him. "She's okay Hope. Just really hungover."

"Alright uh," he scratched the back of his head. "Exactly how much did you drink last night?"

How much, as if she could remember exact liter amounts. "Too much," Lightning said softly lying on her back.

"Yeah. Well everyone's getting together for breakfast right now. That's actually what I came to tell you. But you don't like you're feeling up to it," Hope lamented.

In truth she wasn't feeling up to it, but Lightning was not one to be told that she was invalid. "No, no. I'll go." She paused from the ache that ensued when she sat her self up. "I'll just be a little late."

"Great. I'll go and tell everybody. You're coming too Lebreau?"

"Sure. I'll be along with miss vomit-a-ton here," Lebreau acknowledged.

"Cool! I'll go tell them you and Light are coming. But Light you should definitely take a shower though."

Suddenly the months of familiarity Lightning had shared with the kid seemed a wholly bad idea.

"Hope!"

"Ah sorry," he quickly retracted motioning to leave.

It was then Lighting noticed that Lebreau was eyeing her intently. Nodding at first, but then she started to make a whole series of gestures that to Lightning seemed somewhat drunken break dance. Then she remembered. The wager, the bet, the grand terms of the drinking game they had played that night. The loser was the one who vomited first. First; not limited to that evening, but extended indefinitely into the immediate future. Lightning had lost, and Lightning as now responsible for the execution of the agreement. It was a horrifying realization, and she very quickly thought about ignoring it. Just let Hope walk out the door. That was the sensible thing, since what she was required to say to him was going to give Hope a totally wrong impression of her. Besides she had to live with him. Lebreau, if she had lost would not have to face him the next day. It was an unfair contract. All this went through Lightning's mind. But then again, she did agree, by her own accord. And though it wasn't always true, she liked Lebreau. They were friends. And friends kept bargains with each other, to the bitter end.

"Hope wait!" She yelled, crawling after him on the couch.

"Yeah, what's up," he said so innocently. If only he knew what was in store.

Hesitation came over Lightning again. She looked at Lebreau's prodding eyes for some shred of pity but found none. Her shoulders sank, and she swallowed hard. "I have to tell you something…"

* * *

"I'm loving Hope right now," Lebreau said as she wobbled out of Lightning's shower. Hope had been gone for over ten minutes, but she was still laughing over the seen.

"Can we please drop this?" Lightning asked for the who-knows-how-many-ieth time. She had never felt so awkward in front of anyone. And she bet Hope hadn't ever looked so frightened in his life.

Lebreau just laughed harder. No, she wasn't going to drop the subject anytime soon. She almost skipped with delight into Lightning's room to dress herself. Lightning had already showered and dressed and stood waiting for her just outside.

"Well Lightning, if anything you're a good sport. Don't worry I won't tell anyone. And I'm pretty sure Hope won't either." She laughed yet again. "You would probably have to torture him to get him to repeat it."

Lightning hoped that was true. While she didn't mind too much Snow finding, Serah would probably beat her to death if she heard those words. Sazh's probably heard a lot worse.

Just forget about, Lightning told herself. That was the best course of action. That is much easier said than done though.

"Are you ready yet?" Lightning chided at Lebreau.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm just getting my shoes on," the reply came as the door opened. Surprisingly to Lightning, despite the night of heavy drinking, Lebreau looked none the worse, actually pretty good. Maybe that came with experience?

Lebreau hopped into her shoes with the grace of a tap dancer. "Okay let's go."

"Great."

It was a bit of hike to Snow and Serah's unit. In spite of best efforts on their part, and assurances from the CCA, they weren't able to get everyone assigned into adjacent, or even nearby housing. So subsequently Snow and Serah were over a kilometer from Lightning and Hope. Not very far away, but still far from next door, and thus Lightning actually didn't see too much of her sister during the week.

About ten minutes into the walk, Lebreau asked, "So you feeling better now?"

"The head ache's mostly gone. I'm still not exactly awake," Lightning responded.

"Yeah. It's something about the alcohol, but I've known a lot a people who, you know, don't sleep very long when they're drunk. I mean we probably only got around five hours."

"Uh it feels like two." Lightning started to regret agreeing to come. But she wanted to see Serah. Plus, she was hungry.

"Yeah I hear that." They walked for a few moments in silence. Lightning got a sense that Lebreau had something her mind. She knew what it was. "Hey Light, have you thought about last night. You know…"

"Yeah a little bit…" She ended the sentence as though there was more to come, but at that moment she couldn't summon the words. She had examined what she wanted, she had thought about what she felt, then and in the past. It wasn't hard to see that she should resume her career as a soldier. But how to say it? It seemed like such a heavy thing after all they had been through. And even Lightning was uneasy about it.

"Okay. Just checking. I don't want to pressure you."

"It's fine. Actually I've made up my mind." Lightning stopped walking. "I'm going to do it."

The phrase hung in the air for moment as Lebreau took stoke of what she said. Lightning wished she knew what was going through her mind. "Cool. You nervous?"

"No—just a little," Lightning responded avoiding her eyes.

Lebreau put her hands up. "I won't say anything to her. Keep it to yourself for as long as you like."

"Thanks. I just don't want to give the wrong impression," her mind cycled back to the earlier encounter with Hope. That memory was going to stick with her for a long time.

"I understand. But let's hurry up alright, before the food's all gone."

It was another ten minutes of walking of walking before they came upon the zone where Serah and Snow dwelled. It was just shy of the under-construction residential district for the settlement, and the two got a fresh look at the proto-apartments the CCA was building as permanent hosing for the inhabitants of the settlement. It had only been a few weeks prior when the buildings weren't much more than foundations when Lighting had last seen them, but they had made significant since then. It wasn't going to be long before people started to move in. The much larger Civic Center beyond them was also nearing completion. In only a few short months a settlement of hundreds of thousands, or possibly even millions had grown from refugee camp to thriving city. Lightning thought Hope was right. It was miraculous, in a world where miracles don't really exist.

The thoughts drained from her though as they turned from the primary avenue into the line where her sister's unit was. Lightning had done it several times, but she still had trouble remembering which row of units Serah's was on. Good thing she was good at guessing.

It didn't take much more than a couple of steps down the narrowing divide between the adjoining lines of units before it was obvious which was her sister's. They were all outside, with a large rusted-looking outdoor grill next to two a few crates arranged in a long line with a table cloth run over them.

It had certainly been a long time since Lightning had been to something like this. She felt somewhat awkward walking up. There were a lot a people milling about, many she didn't know. She guessed they must be her sister's neighbors. She was momentarily impressed by that fact. Lighting had barely seen most of her neighbors in the units around her and Hope. All nervousness evaporated when Serah emerged from a gap like the Sun from amongst thick fog. Serah immediately ran toward her, getting her in a wide bear-hug before she could escape.

"Hey! You came! Hope made it sound like you were gravely ill. Are you feeling better?" She asked in one great breath.

"I'm fine. Just tired."

Serah nodded then turned toward Lebreau, also giving her a hug. "Hey, how about you?"

"The same as Light. We both got a little drunk last night."

They released each other. Serah had a wide grin on her face. "You'll have to invite me next time." She turned to Lightning and pointed. "I'm old enough."

Lightning tried to suppress the smile as she looked at the ground, and Lebreau and her sister just laughed.

"C'mon, we got a lot of food ready. And more are coming!" Serah cried and ran back into the mire.

Lightning was a bit stunned watching Serah. Not by all the people, but the more the euphoria that seemed to surround her sister. Serah was always a bright person, but never so, well energetic. She was oozing happiness with each word she said. It was enough even to make her wish that she was more like Serah, a little. She then spied Lebreau walking after her.

"Hey, serendipity. Right Lightning?" she shrugged and proceeded to corral herself some bacon and eggs.

"Yeah," was all Lightning could say, and then proceeded to do the same.

There was a lot of food, at least enough to feed more than two dozen people to satisfaction. Lightning couldn't guess where they got all the eggs, and the meat. It was Pulse stuff, but the smell was better than anything she remembered having on Cocoon. Whatever it was, Lightning didn't care. It had been a long time since she had actually eaten breakfast and she wasn't passing this up.

There were no chairs and thus no sitting. Everyone just milled about with mouths full and plates. Lightning found herself exchanging pleasantries with her mouth full as her sister introduced her.

There was an older gentleman and his wife. "Julius Hazard, I was a doctor back in Eden."

"Hello."

"Hello. We absolutely adore your sister." The wife said.

"Thank you."

Another couple was younger and they had small new borne girl with them. "Really nice of you do this. We have hardly any food with the rationing."

"You're welcome." Even though it wasn't Lightning's party.

Eventually they ran into Gadot, who despite his size, Lightning hadn't seen till that moment. "Hey the other Farron. Nice to see ya."

"You too."

"We should hang out more you and me."

"Some other time."

Once the introductions ceased Lightning finally got a word alone with her sister.

"How did you do all this so fast?"

Serah did a bouncy shrug. "We were just planning to do lunch actually with the four of us, you, Hope, and us. But then Gadot and them showed up, and we ended up buying so much food, we just decided to make it a big breakfast. It was spontaneous!"

"How much did you spend?" The question almost sounded like an accusation.

"Hey it wasn't much. We're fine. And you don't need to chip in okay?"

Lightning resisted for a moment, but then had recollections of the chardonnay of the previous evening. One should always accept kindness with grace and civility, she recalled a teacher lecturing her once. "Yeah."

"Alright. I'm going to go and play host," she said and skipped off into the throng of people.

Lightning stood for a moment, observing he the small crowd as she ate what remained of her meal. She wasn't alone for long though. Snow emerged at her side, carrying a fiberglass container that had been converted into an ice chest. "Hello there," the greeted, putting a lot of stress on the 'there.'

Lightning knew he was implying something. "What?"

"Oh nothing just saying hello," he put the chest next to the row of crates.

"Yeah right. What has Hope told you?"

"Not much just said you weren't feeling well," He turned around, opening the ice chest. "…because you got stone drunk last night with Lebreau last night."

At least he didn't relay more than that. Still Lightning had the need to defend her honor. "I wasn't that bad."

"Oh really. So you weren't throwing up bullets this morning?"

Hard to defend that. "What? I'm not allowed to have a few drinks once and awhile?" She threw the then empty plate into a nearby garage bin.

"You're allowed. Just wish I could've been there to see you of all people get shitfaced," Snow responded, while filing s bunch of plastic cups with ice.

Maybe it was the tone, or the just the 'shitfaced' comment, but Lightning found the urge irresistible. She gave him a light jab on his shoulder, right around the musculocutaneous nerve, not hard, she didn't want to cause damage. Snow immediately dropped one of the cups he was holding, scattering ice everywhere.

"Ah! Geeze Light I was just kidding," he said holding his arm.

"So was I," she grabbed one of the cups with ice, and proceeded walked over to fill it with the tang that had just been made.

Lightning managed to keep to herself for minutes. She watched as more of the neighbors came in, picked up plates and then went over the say hi to Serah, who seemed to be on a first name basis with all of them. Now at then she would motion to her, pointing her out to them, but Lightning would just wave and keep drinking the tang. She had to get a few refills. It wasn't long though before Hope finally appeared, with Sazh and Dajh closely trailing. At least she knew these people.

"Hey soldier. Nice to see you after a short while," Sazh shouted as he approached.

"You too," Lightning replied.

"Hey Lightning," Hope said somewhat timidly as he stopped beside.

"Hope," she felt she needed to do more explaining, but she rather have Sazh and especially Dajh, not hear it.

"I'm liking this sister of yours Light," Sazh said as he walked by, touching her shoulder. "A man can't get enough to eat these days."

Lightning just smiled, then turned to Hope. "Hope um—sorry again about the…" She needn't say more.

"Oh it's okay. I get it. It was sort of funny. Kind of."

"Yeah." It was one of those of moments where she searched for something, anything to say. She wanted to let the ice melt a little, sweep the dirt under the rug, let bygones be bygones, erase the whole thing with a joke. But she wasn't that witty, so it seemed. She might as well tell him about her decision though. After all he was having the same thoughts.

"I'm going to get some food," Hope said after a moment.

"Wait a moment!" She said hastily, almost as an order. Hope stopped suddenly, turning his head over his shoulder to look at her.

"What?"

Lightning consciously tried to ease her tone, "I just want to tell you something—something serious."

"Okay. What is it?"

Questions of tact suddenly befuddled her. She felt like she needed to give list of reasons. There weren't really reasons though, but more justifications, it occurred to her. But she then scolded herself for being stupid. She shouldn't pussyfoot. That was not who she was.

"I've thought about it. And I wanted to tell you that I'm going to rejoin the GC. I'm going back to the Guardian Corps," Lightning spoke quickly, looking away from Hope's eyes.

"You are! Really?" She expected that question, but she didn't expect the tone be so…joyous.

"Yeah," she confirmed.

"You're rejoining the army Light?" Snow's voice surprised her from behind her. Since when was he listening?

She shook the surprise off. "Yeah I am," she said, with some purposeful attitude.

Snow threw his hands up. "Didn't mean anything by it."

"That's great!" Serah said, emerging at her flank. Was everyone listening in? "I knew to had be going crazy with nothing to do."

"We'll be able to serve together when I can sign up," Hope commented.

"You have a few meters to grow before that'll happen kid," Sazh interjected. Privacy really is dead. "Overheard. So you'll be a soldier yet again? Hope it works out better than the first time."

"Oh thanks. I'll try to keep the apocalypses to minimum," Lightning sassed.

There was general laughter at the comment. "We're just happy for ya Light," Snow explained.

"If this is your happiness, I don't want to see your contempt," she hit again.

Serah rushed to her then, grasping both her hands. "It'll be just like before!" She cheered gleefully.

Snow walked up and put his arm around her. "No it'll be better than before. No cosmic beings to get in the way this time."

"Cheers to that," Sazh agreed. " Guess I'll be telling the truth from now on when I say 'good luck soldier.'"

"Good luck," the word echoed throughout the crowd, followed by cheers and salutations, as it seemed everyone in the crowd had overheard the conversation. Lightning felt two compelling urges then. The principal one drove her to get out of the spotlight, and the supplementary one forced her to smiled and say thank you to everyone who came to shake her hand. She recalled childhood experiences of being lost in crowds of people, trying to recover a familiar face. She made eye contact with Lebreau, who simply smiled and raised her plastic cup in the air. Anyone could see that it meant "told you so."


	2. A Stranger in a Strange Army

A/N: So here's the next one. Thank you for the kind reviews. I introduce some important OC's in this chapter. I hope you like them.

I didn't mean for these chapters to be so long. I just like to give a lot of detail; it's an illness, inoperable unfortunately.

Happy reading.

A Stranger in a Strange Army

It was a quarter passed eleven-o-clock in the morning, and all was not well.

It had been only been a few hours since Lightning officially rejoined the Guardian Corps, and already the ensuing events were making the choice seem like a bad decision. She was sitting on a chair next to Settlement B's Transportation Admin building, which on the GC LZ, which was about five hundred meters away from the converted carrier where she gets hers and Hope's monthly stipends. She had been sitting there for the better part of two hours.

There was the hum of a transport coming in landing only few meters away on the LZ, it was the class, but the wrong ID. Not hers. She was still going to have to wait.

"Come on," Lightning said out loud. No could hear her in the office behind her over the engines of transport, but she wouldn't have minded if they had. If fact she might have preferred they had. The delay was beyond ridiculous. Where was her ride?

The transport loaded what ever it came to pick up and took off a few minutes later. Leaving her behind, and Lightning let the feeling of abandonment fall over her. Why did she expect any difference though?

She noticed her legs were starting to get warm and she scooted her chair back against the wall of the building. The Sun was creeping up on her shaded position. Soon enough, she wasn't going to have any shade, and it was already eighty degrees, and getting warmer. Most of the ground crew had retreated inside because of the heat. And she was stuck outside, waiting for something that she suspected might never come.

"Not happening," she said to herself. If they didn't show up soon, she was leaving, never mind any consequence for disobeying what was technically an order. It wasn't her fault. She'll give them ten minutes then she's gone.

But of course right around the time she decided on that someone calls to her from inside the office.

"Excuse me miss."

"Yes," she said.

"Your transport just called in. They said they got held up, but they're about five minutes away."

Now of all times. "Thank you," she said, but the lack of thankfulness in her speech was apparent. She had had great hopes for the opening day in the GC, but those were quickly going out of the window. What else exactly would the day throw at her?

The progression thus far of Lightning's rejoining had itself been, suffice to say, awkward. She thought about getting in contact with her former commanding officers, Amodar her most recent, or past ones, or former squad-mates from Bodhum. That however quickly turned fruitless. The communications lines barely worked in the first place between the settlements, and the CCA's registry was so incomplete that not even she herself was on it. There was no way to find them, if they even were still alive. So she had little recourse but to talk to the recruiters, and from the beginning Lightning knew it was going to be frustrating.

As the conversation went:

"Hello, how can I help you?" The recruiter said as Lightning sat down in the GC's reception desk for the Settlement.

"Hi. My name's Lightning Farron. I wound like to rejoin the Guardian Corps," she had thought over these words a few times. She didn't know how to make more clear can concise than that.

"Oh that's great. We're really in need of new people. I have some paper work you'll need to fill out but first let me tell you bit about the opportunities you'll have as a member of the new GC. And feel free to ask me anything about…" He didn't even hear the 're-' part of the sentence. He said it almost like he was programmed.

"No. I'm not enlisting," Lightning cut him off.

"You—sorry I don't understand."

"My name is Lightning Farron. I was a sergeant in the Guardian Corps, Bodhum Security Regiment."

"So…you were discharged?" he asked.

No, that was she said in her head, but Lightning also doubted that he knew anything about her being a l'Cie, former l'Cie. "Sort of."

"Okay," he scratched the side of his face. "Have you tried to get in contact with the Personnel Office?"

"Yes I have," Lightning spoke harshly. "I tried to contact my former CO, and the Regiment commander with no success. Here…" she pushed him her arm badge and an older set of her tags. Should be proof enough right?

This was obviously a bit more that he usually handled day to day. Lightning caught a glance at his ID on his chest. He was lance corporal, but he probably hadn't been in the GC that long. He ran his hands though his hair as he looked at her ID and then went on his small desktop computer for a minute. "Okay," he breathed heavily. "You'll have to excuse me for a moment. I need to talk with my CO."

The moment was more than half an hour. Lightning amused herself by watching all the new volunteers come into reception area. Hers was one of five soldiers stationed at desks that seemed to be arranged hastily in the middle of the room. Some potted plants adorned the walls just to fill empty space. All in all it looked more like a bank than a military installation.

He returned finally, holding a thin silver handset. "Here," he said, almost poking the device in her eye.

"Who is it?"

"Uh—someone you need to talk to."

That made Lightning a little bit nervous about whoever was on the other end of the call. "Yes?"

"Hello," the voice seemed way too cherry for a military man. "I suppose I am speaking to Sergeant Lightning Farron yeah?"

"Yes I'm…" Lightning eyed the recruiter who had been listening on her conversation. "I'm her."

"Well hello Sergeant. My name's Laurence Gauss, I'm the chief-of-staff to Major General Gamow, and I'm also in charge of personnel for the GC," He said almost brightly, like he was long lost friend to her, but Lightning had never met this guy.

"Anyway, I understand you want to return to active duty?"

"Uh—yes sir. If at all possible, I would like to return to my unit," Lightning said cautiously. It was sincere, she was willing to accept whatever they asked her to do, but it would be nice to see all the familiar faces again. If would definitely help her deal with whatever changes there were to Corps since she went AWOL.

"I would like nothing more to do that for you Lightning, if your unit still existed anymore."

Lightning bit her lip to help keep her composure, but her heart sank. That was not what she wanted to here.

He continued a moment later. "I can't say exactly what happened but all I can say the command structure of the unit doesn't exist anymore."

"I understand."

"Don't be too disturbed by this. Over sixty percent of all units in the GC are no longer active. Well in the _former_ GC. I'm sure everyone you know is fine. But as you have no doubt realized it's not going to be as simple as that," he explained with an enormous amount of courtesy.

"I understand sir. I'll accept whatever assignment I'm given," Lightning responded, making sure her tone was firm.

"Good to hear. And we will find something for you. But I would much rather do this in person. You're in Settlement B correct?"

"Yes."

"I've made arrangements for you get a lift to government headquarters. It will leave from the GC LZ promptly at nine twenty-five in the morning. Make sure you get there early and to sign in with the transportation office. You got all that?"

Lightning had been writing it down even. "Yes sir."

"Excellent. I'm very much look forward to meeting you, _Lightning_," he put a very odd sound on her name, but she just ignored it.

"Me too sir," she hung and gave the handset back to the recruiter.

He nodded to her and said. "Welcome back."

"Thanks."

That's how it went. Lightning did exactly as she was directed. She was there nearly twenty minutes before departure time, signed in within thirty seconds and was standing patiently for the incoming airship. But of course it couldn't go that smoothly.

Lightning sighed heavily. The world had ended and she was making a big over a delay. Considering all the stress that must be going over any pilot the made it through the utter pandemonium of the Fall, an hour and half must not seem that important. And from her own past experiences in the army, it probably wasn't really their fault.

No use being bent out of shape over it, right? Or so she thought as she stood herself, standing on her toes to stimulate blood flow. She bent over to pick up her gunblade, which renewed her thoughts about bringing it. She wasn't going into combat, but it was, technically at least, still the GC's property and a part of her uniform, though she doubted anyone the logistics office cared that much. It was only supposed to be a meeting with that Gauss guy, but she just was not comfortable venturing that without some sort of weapon. So she slung the strap over shoulder, and waited.

The flyboys at least arrived within their estimate. It was a small type-3 transport, only a two person crew, meant mostly for speedy deliveries not passenger transport. She had flown on one once in the past. They were usually really cramped. It was at least fairly fast though.

"Great," she muttered as it touched down. Lightning expected they probably would have to unload some stuff, and they did, but not exactly what she expected. One of pilots came out with package, but it was very small only the size of head. That took an hour and half to move?

Lightning's eyes meant his, which hidden half by a flight helmet and the rest by a pair of sunglasses.

"You're—Lightning, right?"

"Yeah."

"Sorry about the wait," he jumped down from the airship to where she was standing. "You're our last run of the morning. We were about to come and get you, when somebody put a stay on our lift off to pick up this thing." He shook the small package. "And wouldn't ya know, they take forever to get to us. You can get on board. I'll just be a moment." His voice rang with frustration, confirming Lightning's previous thoughts. He then walked into the transportation office.

Lightning did so, finding that the interior of the airship was just as cramped as she remembered. "Not enough room to spit," she remembered someone saying about them. At least she was the only passenger, so it wouldn't be terribly crowded. She secured her gunblade on the seat next to her and greeted the copilot, who was going over a check list on a tablet computer.

"Morning, so you're Farron?"

"Yeah," Lightning acknowledged.

"Alright, really sorry about the delay. We'll get ya there quick though. I'll just need you to sign…" He held out the tablet computer, pointing to screen.

Lightning was already tired of bureaucracy by that point. She signed it and sat down on the canvass seat, strapping herself down in almost one fluid motion. Hopefully the flight would at least go well. The pilot returned a few minutes to the irk of the copilot.

"What-the-fuck were you doing in there?" the copilot asked.

"I don't know alright! Whatever the hell that thing was, I had to call it in to someone in the energy department. It's done now. We can get out here," he said, marking something off on the tablet.

The two of them spoke like she wasn't even there. Must have been a long morning. Lightning quickly decided she would just keep out of it. Let 'em tongue lash each other.

"You know if you had been half a second faster on that damn fueling line, we wouldn't have gotten stuck with that thing," the copilot vehemently complained.

"Alright, it's been a real shitty morning so I'll let that one slide. But fuck off alright. You know procedure. Let's get this done and that's it. Okay?" he asked, with growing enmity.

"Sure, can we get out of here?"

"Yeah," the pilot responded. Like a switch had just been hit, his tone went from furious to entirely sanguine and professional, leading Lightning to wonder how long these guys had been flying together. "Balance clear?"

"Balance clear, all systems are within acceptable parameters," the copilot responded. A low humming sound reverberated through the airship as the engines ignited.

"Control, Red Eye requesting clearance for lift off," the pilot spoke over the com-line.

"Red Eye, Control; clearance granted. Happy sailing," a voice. Lightning could barely hear it from her seat; it was just audible over the loud din of the engines.

"Finally," she said, as the craft accelerated her into the air. It seemed like a week time since the previous day, and it felt like eons since she had last flown on GC transport. It some ways going into the air was going home. But even still she couldn't help but feel a bit anxious about her rendezvous. She couldn't peg the reason down. Maybe it was just the newness of it all, because the Guardian Corps she was going to was not the one she remembered? That must be it, she concluded to herself. Just like the first day of school, or first day on the job. It's natural, no reason to be alarmed.

"Vector 270, on course to HQ," the pilot said before turning around to Lightning. "We should be there in about thirty minutes. As far as we can tell there is nothing in our flight path, so it should be pretty smooth. But if we do get pegged by a flyer, just so ya know, we'll have to do some pretty intense maneuvering."

Lightning got the gist of what he was implying. Keep an eye onto where the barf bags are, and don't unstrap yourself. She had been there before. "I'll be fine. Don't worry about me."

Pilot gave her slight grin. "Alright, suit yourself."

For the next fifteen minutes it was a fairly pleasant ride, punctuated by occasional scraps between the pilot and his copilot. Lightning thought that they had definitely been at there job too long. Lightning had flown in anything since they first took residence in the plateau, and hadn't actually done too much exploring of it either. So it was the first time she was getting a good look at their new home. It had the same flavor of localities she had visited before on Pulse. Vegetation wasn't markedly different, still a lot of short green grasses and towering bulbous tree—things. There were even some small bogs in shallow depressions. On the whole though it was all very flat, a bit unlike the rolling hills of the steppe lands she had wandered during her tenure as a l'Cie. That was probably why they chose it for all 'new Cocoon.' It was also so huge that even the massive settlements didn't have a major impact on the ecology. In a word it was a savanna, broad and teeming with grazing animals, and of course predators.

Lightning practically hypnotized herself, gazing at everything through the front window. It all really seemed like a new world, even though she had been living there for awhile. It then occurred to her that at the very least, rejoining the GC would allow her to escape the confines on her housing unit. That was worth the little pains of process. That's what she thought at least until the propulsion system on the airship suddenly failed.

It just seemed like some mid-air turbulence until an alarm went off in the cockpit, and craft suddenly began to veer left much more than it should. "Whoa!" the pilot yelled as he got control back. "Wald, we got an engine fire!"

"I fucking noticed," the copilot responded typing furiously on the touch display on the control panel.

Lightning grabbed hold of an overhead bar, bracing herself against the violent buckling as the aircraft continued to veer left, severely. The pilot was going to lose control of it soon. "If you could please release the fire suppressant" the pilot was yelling by that point!

"I'm trying dammit—it's not engaging—piece of shit!" He slammed his fists against the screen. "I always knew we'd be the ones stuck in a fucking-death-trap!"

That wasn't something Lightning wanted to hear. She tightened the four-point seat belt around her. The flight probably wasn't going to end well.

"Alright!" The copilot said, somewhat calmer. "I'm shutting off power."

Shutting _off_ power? Lightning barely had time to process the words when the violent turbulence suddenly ended, and aircraft went silent. Everything somehow seemed to slow down but Lightning it wasn't really slowing down. It was a hyper-awareness, a feeling you get when faced with the abject possibility of your own death. She could see almost everything then, the contortions of the pilot's face, the grayish wisps of clouds in the sky, and the hazel color of the ground as it raced up to meet the now righted airship.

Then they hit. It only lasted a moment, but Lightning got the full sense of what a pinball in a machine feels like, or a die as it's tossed. She saw blurred images of the bulkhead, various pieces of equipment as they bounced off the walls, or her head. Then it all stopped with a fair amount of her hair in her mouth.

Should hear the sound of a hand held fire extinguisher being released. Then the pilot abruptly appeared squatting in front of her. "You alright?" he asked while groping her head, not exactly the attention she was looking for.

In truth she was fine, and she angrily batted his hands away from her. "Yes!" She unstrapped herself and grabbed her gunblade at the same time, pushing pass the pilot to walk through the hatch.

"Hey! Wait!" Her caught her arm, Lightning resisted knocking him down. "Don't go anywhere we're calling for help."

Lightning almost laughed at the suggestion. With the delay, and now the crash she felt like she could have walked to the HQ in less time, and with less hassle. Lightning looked at the unfamiliar plateau before her though and knew it didn't really make sense for her to go anywhere, and stopped only a few centers out the door of the airship. Even so, she didn't know the land but something about bothered her.

The copilot brushed passed her with the used extinguisher in his hands. He was even more frazzled than she was. "The whole things shot! We're lucky the entire left side didn't exploded. All the ammonium lines were severed. Everyone fucking on of them! Shit! Those guys are worthless."

"Yeah, that's helping," the pilot scolded him for his attitude. "Get on the com. I'm going to take look at it." He went out the door."

"Yeah, fucking-dammit." He continued to curse to himself. Lightning had slight a sense to continue the scolding the pilot was giving him, but realized she didn't really want to talk to this guy.

"HQ, Red Eye. Mayday. Mayday. We are down, need evac. Over?" He began to say in a loop, which Lightning soon got tired of and went out to see what the damage really was to the engine.

She walked out to find the pilot standing on top of the airship, over an open hatch the looked like a cannon had been shot through it. The thing didn't even resemble the crom-colored blue the engine usually. It was all black, all warped. Lightning knew how little she knew about physics, but she was pretty sure the fire was pretty hot.

Pilot closed the hatch with a sigh filled with disgust. He spotted Lightning looking at him and shrugged. "Well—it's just life you know?" He jumped down off the airship.

"Yeah," Lightning conceded. It was life, but why was hers going so badly this day?

"We just have to sit tight. It'll probably take an hour for them to get another airship over here. We might be able to get the air conditioning going even though the ammonium lines are gone. But no promises." He waved his hand and walked back toward the door.

Lightning didn't need the explanation. She had figured the entire almost before they had landed. She had almost forgotten, but the same thing had happened to her once before when she was a rookie in the Bodhum Security Regiment. The important difference then was her entire squad was with her that time. Even though they had been marooned it didn't seem like it. Lightning remembered she had good time, but maybe that's just selective remembrance?

She was about to walk inside after him when, she noticed something on the ground, something that seemed very familiar but still, at first she didn't understand what she was looking at. The sense captivated her; what is it? It was a rectangular indentation, very deep in the center, lighter radially outwards with some features that looked almost like—fingers.

Exactly what came first, the realization or the fear Lightning was not sure, but she bolted back into the airship. What it was, was a behemoth footprint, a large one, and it was fresh.

The odd couple was arguing about something, again, as she stopped holding on to the pilot's chair. "Hey!"

The two of them both stopped with shocked looking expressions on their faces. "What?"

"You both need to arm yourselves. Now!"

"Arm ourselves?" The pilot arched an eyebrow at her then turned to his copilot quickly. "Wald what zone are we in?"

The copilot tapped his tablet computer a few times. "A31. It's double green. No predators, no grazers, just nothing.'"

"See? Relax we're completely safe. There's nothing out here."

"Yes there is! Look…" Lightning tried to explain, but she was beginning to get very frustrated with these two.

The copilot this time was trying to talk her down. "Hey girl, we've scouted this entire region. We monitored it for mouths. We have pretty good understand of where the wildlife is. Trust me there's no bad stuff within ten kilometers of here."

"There's…." she began to explain again, but realized it would be much more productive to just show them the damn thing. She got an iron on the pilots collar and yanked him towards the doorway. "C'mon!"

"Whoa! Hey alright I'm coming," he protested, trying to wretch his uniform out of her grip.

Lightning released him, she walked over to the footprint, scanning the horizon to make sure they wouldn't get bounced and pointed. "Here."

The pilot walked up right beside her and starred down, without showing much of anything on his face. "What?"

Lightning rolled her eyes. Flyboys, she should've known better than to think that they were smart. Lightning bent down on her knees outlined the features with her finger. "You see the heel. And these are the fingers."

"Oh I see it now. It's kind of weird looking isn't it?"

Lightning ignored the commentary. "Look, it was made recently."

"Maybe, but whatever it was, is probably long gone by now. I wouldn't worry about it." He said, hardly any more alarmed than before.

Lightning swallowed hard. She knew she wasn't best teacher. She wasn't that eloquent, and that sometimes she was way too blunt. But she still could hardly believe the obtuseness of this guy. He might know everything there is to know about flying an airship but he really had not a clue how animals behave. She gave the pilot a rough shove. "Listen alright! These things are not fucking antelope. They're massively territorial, and they sprint up 100 kilometers per hour." She advanced on him and retreated in kind with his hands. "And with all the noise from the crash they're going to be heading this way."

She wasn't about to shove him again when he said, "Alright! Calm down. There's actually a way to check this—okay?"

Lightning eased her aggressive posture. "Fine."

"Alright. You're a real sweetheart you know that?"

Lightning didn't answer.

They walked back to the cockpit, where the copilot was going over something on the tablet computer. "Wald, can you bring up the ground sensor?" The copilot didn't respond at first. "Now!"

"Okay! I just need to reset this thing," the tapped some cursors, and then a strange grid appeared on the LCD. The copilot squinted at it for moment. "There's nothing out there. Just a lot of noise-movement from wind and crap, but…" He stopped speaking suddenly. "Wait a moment. I…"

"What?" the pilot asked as he leaned in over the copilot's shoulder.

"I got…oh shit. I got movement at three hundred meters. It's pretty big. There might be two of them. Hey!" The screen immediately froze. "What the hell! C'mon!" He slammed his fist into the screen, and it just went black. The copilot then let out slew of curses in protest.

"I told you," Lightning said while sliding her gunblade out of its sheath.

The pilot just shrugged. "Hey, we only know what they tell us. Wald get on the com. We're in code 1," the pilot ordered.

"No shit. HQ, Red Eye. Code 1 emergency. Require immediate extraction."

"While he's doing that, you mind giving me hand? We got some artillery that will probably be helpful," the pilot said walking toward the rear of airship.

Lightning glanced quickly out through front window. There was still nothing in sight, but that wasn't necessarily good news. She had fought these things before, several times in fact, and it was never exactly easy to fell these monsters, even with the abilities she and her friends had as l'Cie. And Lightning new how fast and how hard they could hit. "Sure." She followed him back.

"Alright, well this has turned into a real fine day for all of us hasn't it? Not only do crash but we're getting attacked by some vicious Pulse-born wild life. Man—honestly I became a pilot to avoid this sort of thing," He spoke while unlocking a sort of mounted weapons chest in the rear. It had several assault rifles, a few shoulder mounted RPG's launchers, and a lot of ammunition.

"Yeah," Lightning said, only half listening. She glance over her shoulder, looking at the copilot, who was by then in another argument this time with whoever he was speaking to. The behemoths were still nowhere to be seen. Maybe they were catching a break?

"Life's a bitch isn't it? Especially on Pulse." He took down of the launchers and then two RPG's, handing them to Lightning. "My name's Joe Statler, and that guy over is Jim Waldorf, since we already know your name, Lightning."

"Call me Light," she said, grabbing the two assault rifles he handed her, leaning them against the bulkhead. She glanced over again at the copilot, who was still yelling at whoever he was talking to.

"It doesn't fucking matter what stupid fucking zone we're in! We have large hostiles inbound. We are in code 1! Imminent-fucking-danger! We're going to smashed to pieces if we don't get out of here," he shouted. Whoever was on the other lines, finally seemed to relent after that. The copilot then turned to Lightning and the pilot. "Okay, help's on the way."

"Won't be long then." the pilot commented, cocking one of the assault rifles. "We might not even have to fight these things ourselves, right?"

Lightning heard him, but her attention was elsewhere. It was only momentary but she could've sworn she saw something pass in front of airship. She was about to tell the pilot to cover her, will she got a bearing out the hatch when the entire airship lurched several meters to the side. Lighting braced herself against the bulkhead, and recovered when it happened again, and then again. All three of them knew by then what was going on. They were here.

The copilot stumbled forward making for the RPG launcher as the behemoth continued to tear into the hull. He picked it up, but then dropped it as the beast slammed into the hull again. "Shit!"

"Just stay in here!" The pilot yelled. "This ship can take a lot more than this!"

Lightning understood where his reasoning was coming from. Why fight in the open when the airship when you can use the airship as a shield? The hull was holding up well against the attacks, for the moment at least.

The monster stopped suddenly, and the three of them all pointed their weapons toward the still open hatch, waiting for the behemoth to try and force its way through to tear them to pieces. The next attack didn't come from there, but from above. The top suddenly bulkhead collapsed inward several meters.

"It's going to crush us a like beer can," Lightning thought! They weren't going to be able to stay in there much longer before they were force out. Lighting armed her gunblade and ran through the open hatch, while the behemoth continued to tear at the other side of the ship.

"Hey wait!" The pilot called after her, but she didn't. They were good pilots, but for this sort of fighting, she was preferred to fight on her own.

"Watch my back," she called behind her as she ran out.

Exiting the airship, she did was quick sweep with her eyes before moving around the aircraft. Just like she knew, it was a behemoth, big and ferocious, tearing and chewing the steel hull of the port side of the aircraft as though it was paper. She brought up her gunblade, aiming the barrel straight into the softer tissue of its stout neck and fired three shots. One hit home, the others not far away and the monster gave whelp before turning its attention to Lightning and charging. Lightning in flash switch the gunblade to its sword mode pointing at the beast as it ran at her. One step aside, and then slashed it across the face and shoulders while dodging the swinging claw. Now on the beast's right she plunge the blade deep into the neck, not far from where her shots were.

It was supposed to be a fatal blow, and Lightning tried to pull her gunblade out, but it was stuck. Before she could react she herself being dragged as the beast kick and bucked with the blade stuck in its neck. She let go, rolling several meters on the ground. She pulled herself to het feet quickly. The behemoth jumped wildly for a few more moments clawing at the gunblade in its neck before falling over on side. Lightning had killed it.

She cautiously approached it, ready to jump away in case it had yet more fight in it, then set to work trying to free her sword from its body. She must have sunk into a bone of something. It was move she had used on them before to some success, but that was the first her blade gotten stuck. It was really wedged in there too. She had put he leg on the shoulder before the thing finally broke free, and just in time too.

There indeed was a second one and it was standing on its hind legs toward Lightning, bearing a sword like horn down on her. Lightning cursed herself for not noticing before it had come that close to her as she rolled away. She switched to her rifle, and fired several shots, but they were wild and only made the behemoth even angrier than it already was. It bought her enough time to get on her feet, and flip away to get some distance.

It stepped toward her then, and slammed its blade into the ground in front of her. She slashed at its arm, and then moved back. She was in bad position. If she tried to rush it without the initiative, it would just grab her and break her half. And there wasn't any obvious way to get the advantage.

"Lightning!" She almost didn't hear it, but she looked toward the airship to see the pilot and copilot with a freshly loaded RPG launcher. She flipped backward, landed and then planted her face square in the dirt. The missile launched and hit square in the back of the upright behemoth. The explosion was almost deafening, and Lightning could feel the intense heat on the pate of her head and the back of her neck.

She jumped to feet immediately. It was still alive. The explosion had hurt it. The behemoth had fallen to its knees, barely holding itself up with its free claw, but it was still alive, and its small leered at Lightning with an astonishing hatred.

Time to end it. She charged the monster, jumping over the blade as it swung low at her. Her feet landed squarely on its shoulder, and she plunged the tip of her sword into the red eye of the beast. She jumped off as the dying beast wailed in pain, and slowly stopped moving altogether.

It was dead, there was no mistaking that. Lightning allowed herself a small smile. Three months, it had been that long since she had fought a battle, and she hadn't grown soft at all. She was just as fast as she had ever been, which surprised her considering that she hadn't been doing much of anything. Maybe it wasn't going to be so bad rejoining the GC?

She sheathed her gunblade and walked back toward the now partially crushed airship. The pilot and copilot were already running towards her though.

"Holy shit!" The copilot yelled, and surveyed the dead carcass of the second behemoth and ran over to the first. "I mean—holy shit!" he yelled again.

"You alright Lightning?" the pilot asked her with a laugh. "You didn't get singed did you?"

"No. I'm fine," she responded. "Thanks for the help."

"Oh—yeah! Like you fucking needed it!" The copilot said, still looking over the carcasses. "You mind if I borrow some of that ninjitsu of yours?"

"What?" Lightning asked.

"He's right. You were pretty hot out there," he complemented her. Lightning felt a bit speechless, maybe it was the rush of the fight wearing off? "You're not of the SpecRec are you?"

"What—no. No I'm Bodhum Security Regiment," Lightning replied as nonchalantly as she could. She couldn't actually just tell them that she was a l'Cie.

"Really? Just regular infantry? Wow. You know with moves like that, you should be a general by now," he added.

Lightning rolled her eyes. "Not exactly."

"Yeah. But I guess I owe you another apology for this mess," the pilot began. "I think you're going to be a bit late."

Lightning had completely forgotten about the meeting with Gauss. After fighting the behemoth she felt like she had never left the Corps. She was supposed to meet him, and he was going to decide what next step her career would take. But at that point she didn't really care about it. She was ready.

"It's no one's fault," Lightning said to pilot. "It's just life right?"

The pilot nodded in agreement. "Yeah, she's a bitch."

Lightning heard engine sounds became audible a moment later. Somehow, for her at least the cavalry never seemed to arrive on time.

* * *

The rest of the trip was particularly uneventful for Lightning, thankfully. Two GC airship had come in to get them out, another type-III transport and one AH-100 series gunship. Lightning was but irked by that, it would have been so easy to deal with the behemoths if the gunship has gotten there only five minutes sooner.

It turned out that they while they thought that the zone they had landed in had been reclassified from "very safe" to "exceeding acceptable risk." But somehow, no one had updated their airship. And because the behemoths effectively shredded the engines, it wasn't possible to determine why one of them caught fire in the first place—all wonderful news. Lightning hardly cared about that though. She just wanted the day to end, no really concerned with how at that point.

It took them some ten minutes to do a preliminary evaluation of the incident, before they finally decided to take off. It was another twenty before Settlement A was finally in sight. All in all she had lost about two hours waiting for the airship and another hour and a half because of the crash, not exactly a trivial amount of time to be late. And Lightning was left to wonder what the reaction this Laurence Gauss would be. She knew she shouldn't worry that much, none of it was her fault. But she couldn't shake the feeling that as unpleasant as the day had already been, fate had few things in store for her. Lightning did her best to swallow her fear as they got ever closer to Settlement A, and the Guardian Corps HQ.

As big as Settlement B was, over three hundred thousand Cocoon refugees, A was much larger. Lightning was wide eyed over just the sear expanse of the settlement. She speculated it was at least 15 kilometers in diameter, though she expected they probably had exact dimension at HQ. It was easily home to over five-hundred thousand people, maybe even close to a million. No wonder why they chose this one to be the seat of the New Dawn, and the location of all military headquarters. It also had a prim position on the Plateau, near the exact center, nearly equidistant from the other settlements. Lightning scolded herself for thinking B was overcrowded. She was suddenly glad that she didn't have to subsist down there. She knew that could change though.

Lightning, like a dog with her head out the window and her strawberry-pink hair fluttering in the wind, watched intently as they approached the right flank of the city. From the air it almost looked like arm extending from a giant body. Even from a few hundred meters above the ground Lightning could clearly make out the features of the buildings. They were on average much larger than those in the rest of the city, many of them looked more like converted ships than free standing structures. They were also massive loading docks, with large fleet-class airships waiting on huge LZ's as massive cranes unloaded whatever they were carrying. No doubt about it, that was where the HQ for Guardian Corps was. As they got closer Lightning could see it wasn't just the GC. She saw the emblems for PSICOM and the CCA, they were largest ones, but there were a few others she didn't recognize. All of them grouped together into a massive general headquarters, GHQ. For Lightning it reminded her of the first days after she initially joined the GC and went to Eden for training. The size and scope of everything just overwhelmed the senses, but in a good way. It was feeling of awe, or great anticipation. She was actually starting to fell excited for once about what was to come. Maybe she wasn't a jaded old woman at the age of 21?

The airship banked slightly to the right circling in to land on one of the smaller LZ's. Small was relative term though. It was easily double the size of the LZ she had taken off from with enough room for the type-III and the AH-100 to land with plenty of elbow room.

Lightning unstrapped herself then, jumping off the gunship onto the black tarmac. They had landed in the shadow of a building so it was relatively cool, even though the average temperature outside was easily in the nineties. The Lightning found the building itself somewhat familiar. She got an odd sense of déjà vu looking at its exterior. It was definitely a converted carrier so she probably had seen something like it somewhere before and shrugged it off.

The pilot and copilot had ridden in the type-III, and she could imagine the endless chatter that she was sparred by decided to fly in on the gunship. They jumped down and walked over to send her off.

"Well I told ya we'd get ya here. Not exactly punctually though. I've already reported the entire thing to everyone; the Personnel Office, the Chief of Staff… everyone. The Commander of the Air Group wanted to debrief you on what happened, but I told him you were unavailable."

"Thanks," Lightning replied unsurely.

"Ah don't think about it. It's counts as my screw up after all."

"Hey Lightning," the copilot addressed her. "You ever need a lift, or just couple of pilots for anything just call us. I feel a lot safer with you on our ship than any of the PSICOM commandos."

"Maybe." Lightning slung her gunblade back around her shoulder. "See ya around, Wald. Stat." She walked toward the GC HQ.

"Hey take it easy Light." The pilot hailed to her. Lightning just waved her hand without turning around. Overall they were good guys, but Lightning was hoping she wouldn't have regular run-in's with them wherever and whatever she ended up doing.

There was a pair of sliding glass doors that served as the entryway. Walking through them, Lightning felt like she was walking into a supermarket. She spied the reinforced steel through the crack in the doorway that could descend in a moment to seal the place up. That was more a military building. Past experience told her to expect a security checkpoint, armed guards and metal detectors, but there was none of that as she entered. People darted every which way without any impedance in a virtual human beehive. There were charts full of weapons and devices being pushed everywhere, aids carrying folders going up and down lifts, no reception desk, no floor chief directing the chaos, and pretty much no signs directing anything, anywhere.

"Great," Lightning lamented. Things just kept getting better and better. She stood in the middle watching the frenzy with no clue on where to go, or who to ask to find this Gauss. Turning her head she spied a petty officer coming more or less directly at her, and decided he was her best opportunity.

She stood to the side he passed by her. "Excuse me sir." He didn't hear her. Lightning walked behind him. "Hey!" He still didn't hear her, just kept glancing at his wrist over and over, each time developing a successively more worried expression. And Lightning gave up.

"Okay." Strike one, but there had to be someone that could help her. She looked around seeing an endless amount of aids before finally seeing someone, an officer, who might be able to help her. Lightning rethought it as he came closer. He was definitely an officer, a Lt. Colonel and he looked a bit sullen. Lightning decided that she needed to grow more of a backbone though. She got squarely in is path and made sure to keep her posture straight. "Sir, please excuse me, but…"

She never had the time to finish. He looked straight in the eye as he snapped, "I don't have to deal whatever shit you're dealing with trooper." Lightning's face went a little warm, and her back stiffened. "Bring it to your fucking-squad chief first!"

Lightning was a bit stunned. Clearly he was assuming something about her that was incorrect, but she had no idea why he had such a huge stick up his ass. Strike two.

"Asshole," like muttered a bit loudly. She only meant herself to hear it but found herself face to face with another officer, this time a Commander. And she knew he heard what she said about the Colonel.

This guy though fortunately was a lot younger, half a foot taller than she was with dark brown hair. Maybe he would some sympathy? He did have an odd expression on his face has looked Lightning in the eye.

"I hope you weren't talking about me uh…" He craned his neck to see Lightning's badge. … "Sergeant."

Lightning felt like an animal caught in mag-train's headlights. She'd never been that careless around superiors. The day really was getting better and better. "No sir…I wasn't referring to you uh…" She turned around quickly to make sure the Colonel was well out of earshot, and that no one else was listening.

The Commander looked to where she was looking. "Oh—yeah he is." He said with such nonchalance that Lightning started to feel a bit relieved. "Well if you would excuse me." He brushed passed her walking toward the lifts.

A flurry of panic went through Lightning. She knew that he was probably her only chance to figure where she was going. She scurried after him. "Uh sir."

"Yeah?" he acknowledge, pressing the down button for the lift.

"I need some help sir. I just rejoined and I need to find a guy named guy named Laurence Gauss."

"Gauss?" he mused for a moment. "That sounds really familiar. Hmm." He starred in the steel door of the elevator for a moment before snapping his figures. "Oh yeah! He's in Gamow's office. I know him."

Lightning let go an internal YES at the excitement in his voice. She finally was going to get on with it. The door to the lift opened and the Commander walked in. "Can you tell where he is." Lightning said following him in.

"I actually have no clue where he is. Honestly Sergeant I get lost every time I come here." Her hope sank. The one person that actually acknowledged her, and he's useless. Better and better.

"You going down?" he asked.

The question jolted her out of her despair. And she quickly stepped out of the lift. "Thank you sir," she said meekly.

"No problem. Good luck Sergeant." He waved while giving her a wry smile as the lift doors closed.

"Yeah." Strike three, Lightning was about to give up. She could keep asking, but she had the real feeling that no one in the entire building knew where anything was. She had no idea how the GC was even functioning in such a mess. She resolved to go outside and find someone to call this guy. She was tired of wandering around.

She suddenly felt a sharp pain in her back. Someone carrying a megaphone has just bumped into as he walked briskly into the hall. She got caught vague "sorry" as he walked directly into the center of the frenzy of activity in the lobby, standing on a small that was there. Lightning could clearly see the ranking bars on his badge, a Sergeant Major, it was probably best that she didn't make anything out of it. What the hell was he up to though?

Lightning didn't really care to find and began to make her way toward the front door. But then of course the guy started to make his announcement. "Alright! Excuse me, everyone please stop what you're doing." Some people looked to see what was going on but the majority just ignored him and stayed on there previous courses. The Sergeant Major seemed to sigh a bit then yelled into the megaphone, "Company! Attention!" That time the entire room stopped on a dime, even Lightning couldn't brush off that protocol, especially when a Sergeant Major said it.

"Okay," he continued in very relaxed tone. "I just need to know one thing, is there is Lightning Farron in here?"

It's to hard the mixed feeling of humiliation and anger that came over Lightning at that moment. How on Pulse was that justification for calling an entire room to order? She entertained the idea of not responding, coming up with some excuse when she approached him after words; I had just landed; couldn't hear you over the airships; I was in the restroom. But that probably wouldn't really help things. The damage had been done. Grudgingly Lightning raised her hand, and every eye in the room focused with a laser's precision on her.

"Oh," the Sergeant Major said when he noticed. "Carry on," he called through the megaphone, and _very_ slowly everyone started to go about their business, glaring at Lightning as they did so. Lightning bit her lip, just to distract herself so wouldn't do anything rash to the guy.

He seemed to walk toward with a subtle exuberance that was completely at odds with Lightning. She recalled times when she was younger, where she lashed out at Serah just because she was way too happy. This was one of those times.

"Hello," the Sergeant Major said when he reached her. "Sorry about that. I heard that you finally arrived and I couldn't think of any other way to get a hold of you in here. We don't exactly have an intercom system working. I've been telling the facilities guys for weeks. They always say they'll do it, then no one shows up. But that's all beside the point. Sergeant Lightning Farron," he grabbed Lightning's hand shaking it vigorously. "That's a very interesting name."

Lightning hardly followed a word he said. "Thank you sir."

"You're very welcome. I'm Laurence Gauss. If you'll follow me, we'll get things started." He turned and walked toward the same lift the Commander earlier had used.

Gauss. Lightning thought to herself, "He's Gauss?" It was bit hard to believe, and if Cocoon hadn't ended she wouldn't believe it. He couldn't be that much older than she was and _he _was a sergeant major. He was the chief-of-staff for major general. It took decades of a career in the army to reach those positions, yet he probably was only around twenty-five. Lightning was more than a bit curious. It turned out though that Gauss was more than willing to talk about himself, even without her asking.

They boarded the lift, going up and Gauss began to explain things. "I can see you're a little frazzled. I give my humble apologies for how your days been so far. That first wreck we've had in over a month and it just happened to happen to you. Funny how that works."

"Yeah," that was all Lightning could think to say, not exactly obeying protocol but neither was he.

"Agreed," he said as he activated the lift. "So you were a sergeant?"

"Yes sir. Bodhum Security Regiment, for two years."

"Great. As for myself I was in Logistics and Supply. Joined actually before I even finished school. Well actually, I was more recruited. I am a statistician by training and education. So naturally that's where I was sent. I was pretty good too. Before long I got transferred to General Hemingway who was directing all allocations for the Calvary and a lot of the security forces. Unfortunately though he was killed during the Fall."

Lightning swallowed a little bit. Remembering her actions during the Fall, it was bit surreal to her accounts from other's perspective, when they had no idea that she had been intimately involved. The lift stopped and Gamow exited with het following. "How did he die sir?"

"Oh, well a large creature from Pulse apparently—sat on top of him, and most of his staff. I had taken the day off. After the whole fiasco Gamow picked me up to head his office. Pretty much all the administrative departments of the military had been disrupted. Most of what's been going on with here has been to regain the chain of command. So it was not before long though we realized that no staff officers were in charge of allocating personnel so I'm doing that too. Not just for the GC. PSICOM lost over 90% of their senior officers, so for the moment at least we're directing their personnel also. Follow me."

He turned a corner and Lightning found herself in an office from hell. Desk, files, computers, and people packed every conceivable niche of space, nothing was unused, nothing was unfilled. The walkway, which had been mostly empty, was overcrowded with staff. Most tried to part, giving a sort salute to Gauss as he went by, but Lightning fund herself prying through gaps of arms and elbows just to keep in sight of where Gauss was going. He finally reached a small office in the corner and ducked in. Lightning rushed to follow him, literally shoving a few people out the way.

"Here we are," Gauss began. "This is my office."

Office was a bit a generous term for what Lightning was standing in. It was hardly bigger than her tiny bedroom in her unit. A small desk with one chair behind and one in front was at the center. Two bookcases, each packed with thick folders with bindings of various colors, apparently arranged in topical, followed sub-topical, and then alphabetical order. The opposite side had several stacks of boxes, each in turn filled to the brim with documents. The effect of this almost made Lightning claustrophobic. Both the stacks and bookcases seemed poised to just collapse under the strain of there own mass. And this guy was supposed to be a statistician?

"Well," Gauss continued talking, apparently taking note of Lightning's attention to her surroundings. "As it turns out Gamow is the highest ranking of the former Sanctum. And as his chief-of-staff my responsibilities of the moment are somewhat—vast. Most of these," he motioned to the stack of boxes, "are recovered information that I am in the middle of processing. It's actually only the documents we think are pertinent to Pulse, and our current situation. These on the other hand," he motioned to the bookcases, "are personnel records that I'm compiling. It's only a small part of them actually. In the lower levels of the building I have about three rooms full selves like these."

"I see," Lightning said, speaking like she had just stumbled into the bizzarro world, starring at the hundreds of files. "You have your work cut out for you—sir."

"Agreed. But I'm sure you're tired of hearing me speak. Let's get tot the point of why you're here." He stood up and pulled a slim folder from the left-most bookcase and sat back down. "This is you." He opened the folder and laid it out before Lightning. She recognized her picture on the far right corner of paper. It was an old one, from two years prior.

Gauss began to speak again, "After we spoke I did a quick scan of our personnel records. This is the original printing of you're enlistment record that went into permanent storage about a week after you first joined the GC, and the results of your basic training in Eden. And, as far as I can tell, it's all we have on you."

Lightning felt somewhat relieved. It looked like no one really does know that she was one of the Pulse l'Cie. But she wondered hwy he bothering to tell her all about this. "Okay. What does this mean for me?"

"Well not much really. The difficulty comes on my side. I am supposed to allocate personnel to where they're most needed. As you can see from the state of things in this building, and from you're experience on this afternoon, that's proving to be very difficult. We simply lack good information. In your case Lightning though it is somewhat intriguing."

_Intriguing? _"How?"

"Well, for starters these results are good. Very good. You weren't the best of your class, but you were certainly top tier."

"I didn't know that," she admitted. In truth she had no idea. Basic seemed so long ago. She hadn't given it any thought for almost the whole time she had been in the GC.

"No, because we typically don't disclose these sort of things. But yes, it's true. Also just before I spoke with you yesterday, I pulled the _one _mission report we have concerning the Bodhum Security Regiment. To be brief you are not actually named, but it does identify that a few individuals performed outstandingly in case involving a renegade Pulse juggernaught."

Lightning had to search her memories for a moment. Since then she had fought and dealt with quite few Pulse machines. But she did remember it, vaguely at least. It had attacked and wounded several members. It rampaged for several kilometers before they had corralled it into a gully. Lightning had gone in to disable it. It was only one of several missions of the like she had gone on.

"Yeah, I was part of that."

Gauss smiled at her acknowledgment. "I thought exactly that. And your actions defending the downed airship just an hour ago seem to show that I was correct. And all this brings me to conclude that _you _are quite the soldier."

Lightning's mouth hung open. She had not really expected to get any praise, even for her actions that day. She had been doing that sort of thing so long, she hardly thought of it as special anymore. She reasoned that most of the elite troops in the whole military must've gone down with Cocoon for her to be put on pedestal.

"Uh, thank you sir."

"Don't mention it, but unfortunately this also leads us to a bit of a problem. Ah hold on," he said. Just then a blond haired women in a corporal's uniform stuck her head into the office. "Yes?"

"Sir they're waiting for you on the next floor," she said a bit timidly.

"I'll be up in a moment. Can you stall for me?"

"Uh—yes sir," he responded timidly and exited. Lightning wondered to herself what that was about.

Gauss continued, "Well you see normally someone like you would be an easy place. You're prime candidate fro special forces. But in Cocoon I would've just sent over for training to become a Special Reconnaissance member."

"So what's the problem?" Lightning asked.

"They are no special forces anymore. It doesn't matter what group really. Whether it was PSICOM Executioners or SpecRec or even the Sanctum Templars. All were sent in to deal with the Pulse invasion, and practically every member was lost."

"Okay—I understand." Lightning had figured right. She had never had that strong of a desire to be a special forces member, but she still felt a girlish tinge of excitement when Gauss implied that she might become one. Of course it was dashed with his subsequent remarks, but sill—she allowed herself some conceit.

"So that brings me to why I called you here this morning. And—one moment," he stopped again the as the blonde corporal returned. "Yeah?"

"Sorry sir, but he's insisting," she said.

"Yeah I figured, tell him I'm just about on my way," he told her and she reluctantly exited the office again. "Okay, well as I was saying, I had set up a meeting for you with the Director of Operations."

Lightning didn't understand who he was talking about. It was obviously some new office. "Director of what?" she asked.

"Director of all operations, Bernhard Dukesson. You might have heard of him. He's been retired for awhile now, but he was formally the director of both PSICOM and the GC one time, but since Cocoon was destroyed he has, very grudgingly really, returned to service. He is basically the guy in charge, for the near future at least."

Lightning had heard of him. He had a bit a legend surrounding his leadership of the GC at least. Though officially not much is attributed to him, she heard more than a few people say that he was by far on the best leaders that GC had ever had. Everyone had called him "the Duke." Though Lightning herself never cared much about who was leading at the top. The only thing she didn't understand was why Gauss was having her meet him.

"I had scheduled it just before noon. But we sort of missed it."

"Sorry," Lightning apologized, even though it was not her fault.

"Don't apologize. The good news is that government heads are having meeting his afternoon. He will be there so you can talk to him then."

"When's the meeting?"

"It's already started actually. So we really should get going." Gauss stood quickly and started waling toward the door.

"What?" Lightning said, scampering to herself out of the cramped chair. At that same moment the blonde returned.

"Excuse me Sergeant Major, but General Gamow wants to speak to you, he says 'right now.'"

"Tell him I just got in the lift…And that I had dropped my folder and scattered my briefing everywhere. Well Lightning we better get moving." He walked out the door back in to the walkway.

Lightning almost knocked the blond corporal down trying to catch up with him. His demeanor had left her a bit stupefied. He knowingly caused himself to be late just so he could talk to her. Why? She was still not even an active member of the Guardian Corps, why would he knowingly piss off his commanding officer? She couldn't answer those questions, but she had sympathy with Gamow. Gauss was jerking her around too, and he didn't appreciate it to say the least.

She caught up to him at the lift, barely making it in as the door closed. "Sir why exactly am I meeting with the director?"

"Because Lightning, I am very good at what I do, and I like to place people to where they will perform to their greatest ability. And since we are trying to piece Cocoon back together that is very important. It would be easy just to tack you on to a security unit, but it's likely that would hardly be the best thing for the military, and definitely not best thing for you." The lift stopped and he walked out turning back to her. "Soldiers like you Lightning, are supposed have their names in lights, not in the dark. Now c'mon!"

Lightning followed. "Wait! You said there weren't any special forces left."

"That's right—at the moment. But I'm pretty sure in this meeting that's gonna change. Believe it or not Lightning, you're not the only one in this situation."

"So what?" She ran out in front and blocked his path. "What are you going to do with me?"

"Just be patient, you're gonna find out pretty soon. C'mon we're already really late." He walked around her.

Lightning had thought she was in the bizarro world, but instead revised her assessment to the worst first day at work—ever. But what exactly was she going to do? Gauss was pulling all her strings. He was holding all the cards to the deck and all the keys to every door. The only way for her to continue her career was to follow him, and she did.

Unlike the floor she had just been on, this one was a ghost town. It had a long narrow corridor from the lift with no rooms or niches on either side, just solid steel walls. At far end it hooked left and there was a single armed infantryman there standing guard. Gauss nodded to him as they walked past and guard nodded back, apparently understanding that Lightning was not a threat. A few steps more and the steel was replaced by glass, and Lightning could see the long conference table, and the several men sitting at it, well mostly men as far as she could tell. Most were in uniform, there were a few in civilian clothes, including the white-gray haired man at the end. That was the Director, the Duke.

Two more sentries stood a little down the way in front of a glass door. Before they got there though. Gauss stopped and pointed inside. "Okay a little whose who. The one in civilian clothes next to the Director, is Charles Alfer. He's the head of the CCA. The PSICOM officer opposite to him is Colonel Roger Beta. Currently he's heading all PSICOM operations since Rosch apparently didn't survive."

Lightning had known that. She had fought with Yaag Rosch right before he took his own life, apparently to but her sometime. She felt a bit surreal looking at his successor.

Gauss continued. "As you might have guessed the GC officer next to him General Alfred Gamow. My boss, who sees me now so we better get in there. The others are mostly aids, so just remember those guys." He concluded and walked toward the two sentries.

Alfer. Beta. Gamow. Lightning thought it had a nice ring to it, as she followed Gauss. One of the sentries stood aside opening the door to him and they both walked in. Gauss walked about a meter in and immediately shot to attention, and Lightning did the same. "Reporting as ordered sir," he said not looking at anyone in particular.

The entire room looked all except the Director, who kept studying a briefing in front of him intently. Gamow especially looked furious, eying Lightning. "Sergeant Major where have you been?" Gamow asked angrily.

"I'm very sorry sir. I was getting ready, and had a few accidents on my way up here," Gauss replied, still at attention.

"Those accidents didn't happen to involve plucking the strawberry that's with you?" Gamow retorted, and there were several chuckles at the remark.

Lightning maintained her composure, despite feeling some ordinance toward the General implying she was fooling around with Gauss. Why was she being dragged into this?

The Director lifted his head up though before anything else was said. "That's enough. Sergeant Major, just take a seat please." His eyes then swung up meeting Lightning's for a moment. "Both of you." They both did, not at the table itself but in the row chairs that were against the wall. They weren't alone either, a horde of aids were there two paying close attention and taking notes on what was going on. Lightning honestly felt a bit out of place sitting next to them.

"What's next?" the Director asked in a tone that conveyed immense boredom.

Alfer responded. "Well next on the agenda is the current power consumption of the settlements and our future energy needs. Falcon has the report the current figures for out supply." He nodded to a dark haired civilian woman at the table who then stood up and began to read from a binder in front of her.

Lightning listened at first, but then Gauss leaned his head into hers. "Sorry about what Gamow said. He's an old guard guy , and I have a bit of a reputation in the army for things—well let's say—other than my work as an organizer"

At first Lightning didn't quite understand what he was getting at. But then she thought of the blonde corporal the peeped into his office. Her mind then recalled the horde outside his office, almost all of them were women, short skirts, low cut uniforms, many in stockings. And who was the guy in charge of personnel? Everyone thought him to be a womanizer. Lightning couldn't believe that she had been so overwhelmed that she didn't notice it. And Gamow thought she was just the most recent conquest. Lightning felt the urge to cover her, even though she was fully dressed. If there was ever something she had sworn never to be, that something was being easy.

She did her best to brush it off, but the thought lingered inhibiting her ability to listen to the meeting. The embarrassment was soon replaced by shear frustration then, and she very much had the urge to punch out the Sergeant Major. The day really just kept getting better and better.

The woman was just about done with reading her briefing then, summing the report and sitting down. The Director at first didn't seem to notice. But then asked a question. "How long will current supplies of petroleum last?"

"It's unknown sir," the woman responded. "An effort is underway to try to measure the deposits. As far as we tell it's vast. Far exceeding a billion barrels."

"There is a catch though," Alfer interjected. "As of now most of is unreachable. We simply don't have the drilling equipment to get to it."

"We're working on that problem," Gamow interjected. "We should be able to fashion sturdy drill bits and anything else that's needed."

"Why is it taking so long?" the Director asked.

"We don't have that many engineers," Gamow answered.

"Another issue is electricity production," Alfer said.

"Why is that an issue?" the Director asked.

Gamow again took over. "Turbines, almost all of them are operating at capacity. More supply of petroleum or natural gas isn't going to make a difference, without a lot more of them. "

"What about photovoltaics?"

"The issue is again with production. We simply don't have the lines in place or sources of the materials we need to make them efficient," Alfer responded grimly. Lightning was beginning to think there wasn't any good news.

"Let me ask an easy question then," the Director showed some agitation. "Do we have enough power?"

Alfer swallowed before answering. "For the moment yes. But if we want to meet the housing goal we've set, we'll need at least…50 gigawatts more to cover the peak consumption of the entire civilian population."

"Okay then," the Director said in a resigned tone. "What's next?"

Gamow nodded then toward Gauss. "Director has the report on the status of the military."

Gauss rose to his feet, setting the folder down on Lightning's lap. Lightning was a bit surprised; didn't he need it? Apparently not, he spoke for over three minutes, throwing out stats as easily as saying hello. The attrition rate of GC and PSICOM personnel, the rate at which they were taking new recruits, current deployments of specific units, the current issues facing the GC, he seemed to have everything on the top of his head. Lightning was almost impressed. He sat down, picking up the folder from her.

No one spoke for a moment. Lightning hardly remembered all the things Gauss, said but it definitely brought a somber atmosphere to the room. As what seemed to be custom the Director was the first to speak.

"Are we at least meeting current security needs?"

"Barely." It was Beta, the PSICOM guys that spoke up. "We've been able to protect most supply lines safely while they are being worked on. But when we're not there, there's little to stop the wild life from tearing the lines apart."

Gamow then interjected. "There is another issue. We have almost all units involved in protecting construction zones, it becomes much more difficult to respond to any civilian threat. I think it would be best that the GC focus on fortifications to civilian positions and engagement of any threat before it nears a settlement."

"Engagement of what threat?" Beta retorted. "We aren't fighting a regular army. You gonna go bomb the countryside."

"I'm serious!" Gamow raised his voice slightly. "We need to take proactive steps to make this plateau safe. We can't keep operating the way we have been. Especially PSICOM."

"We lost over fifty percent of our personnel and ninety percent of command structure. We already relay on the GC logistics support. We don't have the force to start mounting offensives, _especially_ without a clear target," Beta responded.

"There is the enemy out there! You yourself have dozens of ruins. There are wandering machines that attack anything that comes near them. Not to the mention the possibility of Pulse fal'Cie!" Gamow was nearly screaming toward the end.

Beta was preparing to fire back, but then the Director finally cut in. "Alright! Gentlemen we will maintain decorum in these meetings. Now I've said every time we have met, and I will continue to say it every time in the future. Our priority is the protection of the civilian population. Everyone at this table would agree that we are in no condition to fight a war. Now I have something to say about our current deployment, but first I want to hear from Jonas."

The Director nodded to a GC officer near the opposite end of the table. Lightning looked groaned internally when she saw it was the same Lt. Colonel she had encountered in the lobby. "Great," she muttered under her breath. The only one who noticed was Gauss, who gave no reaction.

"Yes director. Security wise we have had eleven instances in the past two weeks, or Pulse wildlife jumping barricades and injuring civilians. Despite efforts to try and deter entry, we've had no affect on driving megafauna from the plateau. And as Colonel Beta has hinted, we have an increasing problem of Cie'th attacking units in the field. Unfortunately some Cie'th are even encroaching on the outer settlements, especially E."

"Colonel, have you made any efforts to wipe the Cie'th out?" Gamow asked.

Lightning's ears popped up at the suggestion. Some things still haven't changed. Cie'th and l'Cie will always be just as hated as they ever were. Lightning almost unconsciously clutched at the area of her breast where her brand had been.

"Yes General. But more just come. We've made rough surveys that indicate that there is over one hundred thousand Cie'th within a two thousand kilometer diameter," the Lt. Colonel said. "And I should mention that, Director, we do have unconfirmed reports of fal'Cie outside of the plateau. But there has been no positive identification."

"I see," the Director nodded solemnly. "Thank you Jonas." Lightning watched the Director intently as he took a deep, seemingly summoning all his strength for what he was about to say. "Now, it had been made very clear today that our current stratagem, for deployment of forces and allocation of personnel, is not functioning as was desired—and that new thinking is needed if we are to effectively combat threats facing the Settlements and our future prosperity. You have all worked tirelessly to make this so, and you should be congratulated. I have listened to all suggestions thoughtfully and earnestly, and I have come to two decisions. The first is this: we clearly do not have a deep enough understand of this world—what it's made of, and who its people are—for us to have effective policies to promote the citizens well being. So, I am ordering immediately that we begin a concerted exploration of this world on which we now have our home. Given current resources I am ordering it to be a joint operation between PSICOM and the CCA, with dual civilian and military command. The Guardian Corps will now take the primary responsibility for defense of Settlement resources and people, in any area where PSICOM must relinquish. The second decision is this: the loss of all special operation units has crippled our mobility and our ability to effectively combat clear and present dangers to the public. Because of this I am creating a new division. Its primary mandate will be elimination of all threats, be it beast, Cie'th, fal'Cie or man. It will report directly to my office and be under my supervision. And I hope that doesn't cause any problems." He eyed General Gamow and Colonel Beta.

"Of course not director," Gamow replied calmly, and Beta silently shook his head.

"My hope is that these actions will help make future ones simpler and clearer. Now we've been here awhile. I think it's time we adjourn for the afternoon. Good day everyone." The Director stood up.

"Good day," the whole room also standing up and began to file.

Lightning made her way to leave when Gauss grabbed her hand. "Be patient. This is exactly what I had in mind for you." He whispered into her left ear.

Lightning paused, thunder stuck at what just happened. So turned to Gauss who simply stood at attention while everyone else filed out of the room. He knew what the Director was going to decide all along. That's why he pushed the envelope to wait for her. That's why he was purposely taking a lot of time to string her along, to make her desperate but at the same time intrigued. He had thought it all through from the start, and even on the spot. She wasn't sure though why he took such an interest in her, why he was convinced she was perfect for special forces when he had barely any info on her. He didn't know she was a Pulse l'Cie—or did he?

Lightning's heart started to race as the roomed emptied to just a few people: Lightning, Gamow, Gauss and the Director. She had the sinking feeling that they all knew. Did they all know about her, about her friends, about her sister? She still had her gunblade with her, but could she really use it? If they did know, what good would it be to confirm it all by running? She was almost at a panic, but still standing motionless as a statue, eying Gauss.

The Director and Gamow sat after a moment, exchanged a few comments and then turned to Lightning and Gauss who were still standing at attention

"Sergeant Major is this her?" the Director asked.

"Yes sir." He walked over and handed the Director the folder. Apparently all it had was the information on Lightning. "This Sergeant Lightning Farron, formerly of the Bodhum Security Regiment. She contacted me yesterday wishing to rejoin her unit. I had to inform her that that was impossible."

The Director looked over the file as the General turned his attention toward her. "Sergeant, were you the one that killed two behemoths this morning?"

"Uh—yes sir. My transport from Settlement B had to make an emergency landing. We were attacked by tow large behemoths."

"Very impressive work," he complemented her. "But what exactly have you been doing for the last three months?"

Lightning almost bit her tongue off. "I—was taking care of my sister—sir." It wasn't exactly a lie, not at all, and it didn't sound to choppy either.

Gamow simply nodded. "Good girl. Gotta take care of the family."

Lightning was relieved the moment he said it. So they didn't know. She was safe, and so was Serah.

Gauss started to speak then. "Excuse me sir," he addressed the Director. "Given Sergeant Farron's performance today, and the information we have on her. I am recommending as head of personnel that she be assigned to the new unit."

The Director raised an eyebrow and looked Lightning up and down, and Lightning had never felt such an intense spotlight on her. "Is that all?"

"No sir. I am also recommending, for superb skill and devotion to duty, that she be given an immediate commission as an officer the Guardian Corps of Second Lieutenant."

"What?" Lightning said, only realizing after that she had completely spoken out of turn in front of the head of the new order. Her a Lieutenant. No, she thought. That wasn't how it was supposed to work. She was supposed to go to officer's school. She was supposed to do everything that Amodar and all the others had to. She wasn't supposed to get special treatment. But still it was to stunning for her to say anything more about it.

The Director was almost amused by the whole thing, especially Lightning's reaction. He turned to Gamow, "Does that meet with the approval of the Commandant of the Guardian Corps?"

"I have no objection. But I do give an endorsement," Gamow said.

"Okay, it's done. Congratulations Lt. Farron," the Director said.

"I…" What could she say back to that? They had just handed her a dream job on a silver platter, and then made her an officer to boot. What could she be but tongue tied? A few years ago she might have even cried.

"You can say 'thank you' Lieutenant," Gamow chastised her, with a joking tone.

"Thank you sir. I am overwhelmed," Lightning managed to get out.

"I noticed. Well at have two people in this unit now. At this rate it might be functional in a year," he said to Gamow.

Gamow laughed. "Two is better than one. And speaking of which, Gauss where is he?"

"I am sorry General. He was supposed to be here half an hour ago," Gauss replied.

"Who?" Lightning asked Gauss.

"Your new commanding officer."

"You did tell him where we were meeting?" the Director asked.

"Yes sir. But I suspect that he didn't listen very carefully."

"Typical," Gamow groaned.

"Shouldn't you have sent a search party to find him?" the Director joked.

"Sir I had hoped sir that he would find his way per his training but…"Gauss turned around and peered down the hallway through the glass. " Here he comes sir."

Lightning turned around, watching in great anticipation the man walk in, and she almost couldn't believe it. How could her day be so filled with ironies. It was the same commander she had run into the hallway, the same one that had overheard her comment about the Lt. Colonel. What were the odds?

He walked in and promptly saluted. "Reporting as ordered Director."

"Nice of you to join us," the Director responded.

"Yes sir—I'm sorry…I got a little lost. I was the under the impression this meeting would take place in the basement level."

Gauss interjected. "Meetings of senior staff meet in the basement Commander. Official councils take place here on this floor."

"Oh—well thank you Sergeant Major. I'll remember that." He looked at Lightning for a moment with an arched eyebrow. "General Gamow it's good to see you again sir."

"Ferd, are you ever on time?" Gamow asked.

The Commander smiled. "Well sir, I tend to view myself not as late, but everyone else as just early."

"Commander?" Gamow stopped him.

"Yes sir?"

"Just shut up," Gamow ordered, almost seriously.

"Yes of course sir."

Lightning turned and gave a quizzical look to Gauss, who simply shrugged. Was this guy for real? He got lost in the GC headquarters and he was supposed to be the new head of special forces?

The Director just seemed greatly amused by it all. "Lt. Farron, this is Lt. Commander Ferdinand Journeyman, formerly of the GC Special Reconnaissance Division. I've appointed him as the head of our new special forces. You'll be reporting directly to him, and take directly from him. Ferd this is Lt. Lightning Farron she is your new subordinate."

The Commander walked to stand beside her and held out his hand. Lightning hesitated for half a second but then took it, starring him straight. Everything about him seemed weird. His demeanor, his handshake, even his name had a strange rhyme to it. Ferdinand Journeyman? Lightning had never in her life head a name so ridiculous. But he had been SpecRec? Maybe he was a lot more than he appeared? Lightning made the decision to withhold judgment. Everything was happening too fast for her brain to keep up. Well this is you wanted, she said to herself, you got to roll with the punches, just like when she was a Pulse l'Cie.

"Hey so we were going to the same place," he said with an upbeat tone. "Lieutenant, so you just got promoted?"

"Yes sir," Lightning replied.

"Congrats." He let go of her hand but gave her a playful pat on the shoulder instead. Lighting altogether found it a bit too familiar. "You must be real talented."

"I guess so—_Commander_," Lightning responded with a little attitude and turned back to the Director.

The Commander gave her the same wry grin he had when he had gotten on the lift, and also turned toward the Director.

"Well, now that you're acquainted," the Director began, "you're both dismissed. Lightning, Commander Journeyman will give you further orders."

"Yes sir," they both saluted and turned to leave.

"Oh—and Lieutenant?"

Lightning was going to have to get used to being called that. She stopped and turned back to the Director.

"Welcome back."

Lightning walked, her head spinning with adrenaline, behind her new CO, Ferdinand Journeyman. Lightning had never thought going back would be like this. She had thought of a thousand ways it might turn out bad, even disastrous, but she never had thought it would be so—strange. She really felt like a stranger in a strange army, despite being a veteran of almost three years. Before she knew it they were in the elevator going back down. Lightning wasn't even thinking of where she was going, was really thinking at all. It was all the power of suggestion Someone could tell her to jump off a cliff and she almost would. She was following him, her new CO.

After a moment of silence he finally said something. "Lightning, that's an interesting name."

"Yeah."

"You mind if I call you Light?"

She was usually the one to say that. "Mind if I call you Ferd?"

"Sure. Everyone does already, Light. I know it seems real weird right now, but don't worry. I have a feeling this will turn out great."

Lightning could only cross her fingers. "I hope so."


	3. Ferdinand

-So I took some time off to work on my typing and I've improved quite a bit. Hope it shows in the latter portion of this chapter. Also I'm in need of a beta, if anyone is interested the extra pair of eyes would really help get the quality of this story up.

As for the plot, it's moving very slowly. I'm trying to make it very adventurous since I think there is a lack of adventure stories for FFXIII even though its Final Fantasy. If anyone has any opinion on the length pleased send me a review.

Everyone else, review anyway.

By the way, if anyone reading this regularly posts on a FFXIII fansite I would really appreciate it if you could drop a blurb about this story. Just a thought...

-Stonehenge

Ferdinand

Lightning could tell that there was something very strange about her new commanding officer, Lt. Commander Ferdinand Journeyman. If she had to describe his personality it would have to be a compromise between stoic and just silly. He was self assured and very confident, yet also self deprecating and overly friendly at times. All in all one might call him a 'cool guy,' except he was supposed to be the commander of an elite unit. Lightning had serious doubts, and was almost certain his command would quickly turn into a joke, so why did the 'the Duke' decide to put him in charge?

Then again Lightning had only met him about an hour and a half before.

They had just exited the meeting and were taking the lift downstairs to lobby of GC headquarters. Lightning had little clue to what she was going to happen next. He had just rejoined, and all of a sudden had been promoted to an officer, a second lieutenant, bypassing all the normal landmarks and requirements. A summary decision, and to boot she was assigned to the newly created special forces. To say it was a weird day would be downplaying it. It was strange beyond strange, and now she was under the command of a very strange former commando.

"So Light," he said once they exited the lift. "Where were you before?"

Lightning had hardly listened to the question. "Excuse me—_sir_?"

"I mean, what unit were you with before in the GC? Normal infantry, cavalry…"

"I was in the Bodhum Security Regiment." It seemed like she had be answering that question a lot lately.

"Bodhum huh? That was always a pretty sleepy town." Lightning was still barely paying attention to him. In one ear an out the other, the words flowed. Her new rank and its consequences still hung over her head like the Damocles.

"So Lightning have you eaten?" He asked.

"…What?" She suddenly that they had stopped walking, and that they were outside, right next to the LZ were she had flown in not that long before.

"I said 'have you eaten lunch yet?'" Ferd repeated.

"No, I haven't."

"Neither have I. I've been missing it a lot lately I don't know about you. Everything's gone to hell in a hand basket. Almost literally right?"

Lightning didn't say anything in response. It felt weird to her to be talking about eating. Didn't he have duties? Wasn't there something they were supposed to be doing?

"Commander," she hailed him forcefully while he was still talking.

They were halfway through the lobby. He stopped walking and turned around to face her slowly with a questioning expression on his face. "Yes—_lieutenant_?"

Lightning balked for a moment, slightly regretting her tone. "Sir, what exactly are my orders?"

"Your orders?" he repeated.

"Yes."

Ferd nodded, his eyes shooting upward in thought. "Well, _our _standing orders are to neutralize any threats or dangers to civilians or the military. But if you're talking about immediate orders for deployment—we don't really have any." He turned around and kept walking.

Lightning couldn't believe him. Even if higher ups hadn't given any explicit orders, there had to be something. Even if the unit was just created, no especially if the unit was just created there would be a myriad of things to be done. After that brain scrambling pause, she picked up the pace and walked after him.

"But Commander," she began as she caught up to him.

"Yeah?"

"What do you mean we don't have any?"

"You should know exactly what I mean; you were there when the Director announced it. The unit's just been created. For the moment it's just you and me. That's it."

"Yeah but…" The effort of getting information out of him was starting to wear on Lightning. "Doesn't that mean we need to be working right now?"

"You're really anxious 'bout this lieutenant thing aren't you?"

The question blew Lightning's train of thought, and she was forced to swallow several curses that were about to fly out at him. "I just want…" she was at a loss for the words. He wasn't far off the mark with that comment. She was anxious, and it was not something she was comfortable with. "…to get going—sir."

"Okay. I can understand that. So then Lightning, what do you think we should do?"

"Me?" Why was he asking her? She wasn't the CO. Hell, she had just become an officer less than an hour before hand. Still, if it was just the two of them it was easy to see what should be done. "We need to find more people," she said almost as though she was guessing.

"It's a good idea. Begs the question though: how many do you think we need?"

Lightning bit her tongue. The quid pro quo was starting to get on her nerves. It something about Ferd that she knew was going to just get under her skin. "I don't know. At least enough for a squad."

"Maybe. I'm actually thinking that we might only need…half that many. Maybe a little more?"

"But?" Lightning knew he couldn't be serious. He was talking about maybe only four to six people. That was supposed to constitute an entire division? "Commander that's hardly anyone," Lightning protested.

"Yeah, but what we're doing is _hardly any_ mission."

Ferd spoke with that same wry smile that seemed so patronizing that Lightning stopped dead in her tracks, turning her eyes away from him. The utter nonchanlance, the audacity, the just smartass-ness of her new commander brought her a point of rage she hadn't been to in awhile. Any elation she had over her new position as lieutenant in an elite unit she had just moments ago was completely evaporated. She was an inch form quitting the GC again, just so she wouldn't have to deal with Ferdinand Journeyman.

Ferd though was completely aware of her agitation, and turned around discarding his usual antics. "Alright, sorry. I'm not trying to be an ass. I just think some things are too important to be taken seriously, you know?"

The détente he was hoping for didn't come, as Lightning glared at him with an intensity that made even him uncomfortable. "Okay," he began. "You want to know your orders. Well's here's your first two: Calm your nerves and follow me." He turned around and continued walking.

It was hardly a satisfying answer to Lightning's first question. Still at least his demeanor seemed to get a little more serious. She still didn't feel like she could have confidence in him though. But then she asked herself, what else was she going to do? She picked up the pace and followed after him.

By then they had long since passed through the first LZ, walking out to another LZ that was toward the main body of Settlement A. It was blistering hot by then, slightly humid and very uncomfortable. The post noon sun was still high in the sky and baking everything in sight, Including Lightning who was quickly lonning for the air conditioned GC HQ they had just walked out of. She had no idea where he was leading her.

"So," Ferd began once Lightning had caught up and was walking beside him. "Since I guess you're new to this sort of thing, I'll give you some suggestions on how it works. Here's the first grade lesson: you need to be patient. You're young and full of energy, but trust me, doing things fast in this kind of game will really screw you in the end. We…"

Lightning's eyes shot up as a large suddenly ignited its engines, giving off a tremendous amount of sound that completely drowned out what Ferd said next. She watched at it slowly rose into the air, going faster it lifted to higher alititude.

"Those things are never exactly quiet," Ferd commented before continuing. "Anyway, we have a broad, ill defined mandate to fulfill. We might sometimes be given specific orders from the Director, but for the most part, we're the ones who are deciding where and what our priorities are. It's going to be a lot different than what you're used to in Bodhum."

They walked around another converted carrier that was serving as the headquarters for the new PSICOM, giving her a new vantage point on the whole area. The GHQ had looked pretty massive from the air, but Lightning found even more imposing from ground level. On her left there was row after row of landing zones, flanked by massive mechanized machinery in an endless array of activity. Directly ahead she could see the recently completed Civic Center for the Settlement, and high rising buildings all around it. Even from her limited view she could tell there was more, a lot more, than there was in B. It Lightning even more curious to where exactly they were going.

"So," Ferd continued. "Try to keep that head of yours cool. This brings me to the second grade lesson: we're going to be working in a small group—so _you_ need to have confidence in the people you're serving with. That means in particular that you're going to have to trust me." Ferd's eyes, suddenly a lot more intense than before, met Lightning's, seemingly ripping into her mind. "I'm guessing that this is probably going to be the hardest one for you. You don't seem like the person that trust's other people easily."

Lightning felt very exposed once he said that, like he had just caught her red-handed stealing. Of course the reason was because he was right. She barely trusted anyone. She has doubted everything, and everyone at one time or another. She even had doubted her own sister, and that led to series of events that left everything in her life irrevocably changed. Even when they were l'Cie, it was some time before she truly trusted her friends. Lightning realized that while she had changed over the past few months, that fact was still the same.

She turned her eyes away, looking ahead at the path they were walking, He was right but she still had enough pride to not show how much he had unsettled her. "I'll work on that."

Ferd gave her small shrug. "Hey, that's about all anyone can ask for. Something else you learn in SpecRec is that people are often much more than they seem. That's definitely true for you Light."

It sort of sounded like a compliment, so Lightning took it as one. "Thank you, Commander."

"Hey call me Ferd. If you ask me, the only thing ranks are really good for are egos and paychecks. Oh yeah!"

Ferd stopped suddenly, turning around quickly, looking at something behind them.

"What?" Lightning asked.

"HQ," Ferd answered, nodded his head toward the building that was glimmering in the sunlight. Lightning got an odd sense of déjà vu yet again. "Doesn't it look kinda familiar?"

"Yeah it does." Lightning used her hand to cover her eyes from the harsh glare.

"It was bothering me for awhile, so I recently asked the facilities guys what they used to construct it. It's _the Palamecia._"

Lightning was getting very tired of surprises. "What? Really?" Memories of when she had been on board that destroyed flagship raced back to her. When they went into an obvious trap to save two of their friends. When they had confronted the former longtime leader of the Sanctum, Primarch Galeth Dysley. It was the same time that they discovered the terrible truth of Cocoon, and their shared focus. It wasn't exactly a pleasant remembrance, but in the greater turmoil that had followed, she had all but forgotten about it. The ship was destroyed though in high altitude, high enough that she couldn't believe any piece of it could have survived. Yet apparently part of it did. Lightning examined it closely enough to tell that Ferd was right. It had been heavily modified but it definitely was the superstructure to _the Palamecia._

"Yeah," Ferd acknowledge. "It was the fore section of the ship. Hardly looks like it now though right? Then again, I never actually set foot on the thing. How about you?"

"Huh?…" she had been on board, right before it was completely destroyed by the fal'Cie. "I was on it once. A little while ago," it sounded opaque enough.

"Really, and you didn't even recognize it. Anyway I thought that was interesting. They're reusing everything these days." He turned back around and kept walking the same trajectory he had before, this time at a slight brisker pace. Lightning followed, still in the dark to exactly where he was going. "It was somewhere around here."

"What?"

"Ah! There!" he said, pointing to a vehicle that was parked on side of a nearby LZ. Lightning had to shield her eyes from the Sun to see what it was: a mobile ramen restaurant. He turned back to Lightning. "And the third grade lesson is always find out where catering is." Ferd then ran off to secure a position in line.

Lightning stood for a moment and just watched him. Despite all his quirks, he at least did have a brain underneath that apparently thick head of his. Still, like he had said, trusting him was a whole different matter. It had taken her a non-inconsiderable amount of time to warm up to Snow, even though Serah had trusted him completely. She had a feeling that it was going to be the same with Ferd. Though Snow was not her CO. Things definitely wouldn't go exactly the same way because of that fact. But still, the same question always came to Lightning's mind, what else could she do? She swallowed her doubts and followed him to the noodle truck.

Lightning was almost impressed with how much Ferd could eat. He was just like Hope in that regard, eating portions seemingly beyond what the size of his body should allow. The servings of the mobile eatery were pretty large to begin with too, large that Lightning was sure he must be stuffed to the brim after he finished his fourth one. But still, he got back in line and got another. She ate too. She was pretty hungry after all she hadn't eaten anything the entire day; she had gotten to the transportation center in morning and since then she had been preoccupied. But Lightning barely finished one before she was nearly full. How was he able to stuff so much into himself?

It wasn't that long before they were both done eating and resumed walking in the same direction they had before. Lightning took the opportunity to finally find out where they were going.

"Ferd?" The name still sounded very strange to her. "Where exactly are we going?"

"Oh, I didn't tell you right. The machine shop's on the edge of the GHQ. I'm having them modify a velocycle. It's supposed be done by now. I thought we go pick it up, and then we'll see."

"See what?"

"See what's going on around this place. I told you, we have decide what our operations are going to be. Hard to that without any information." Ferd turned his head to Lightning. "That sound good to you?"

Lightning honestly didn't have any better ideas. "Sure."

The machine shop he was talking about was just beyond the LZ's for the GHQ, about a ten minute walk. Though Lightning thought it would've been much faster if they hadn't just eaten. Whatever was is that ramen, it was certainly weighing her down. Ferd on the other hand didn't seem nearly as affected, leading Lightning to the frivolous conclusion that he was only half human. That or he must have been starving himself for several days.

Though it was called a machine 'shop,' the word hardly reflected the truth. Just like everything else Lightning had seen in the settlement it was huge, servicing everything from the massive carriers to personal velocycles in several rows of enormous hangars. Each had a number 110, 111…etc, like an assembly line, and each hangar was another virtual beehive of activity. Not just people though, deckdrones, watch drones, even some modified Crusader battle types all worked in tandem, repairing, stripping, changing, whatever. It was to be expected, Lightning supposed, since it did have to service the entire the operations of the GHQ.

Ferd lead her to one of the hangars on the side of the mechanic-complex, one that was obviously specializing in smaller vehicles. Lightning spied several of the type-III's, like the one that crashed with her inside it, being serviced on several tiers, as well as numerous others things she didn't know the designation for. She wondered if they had already dragged the one she was in back. She knew facilities like this existed within the former Sanctum, but her duties had never actually directed into one of them. It was impressive, even if one just admired the scale to which it was all organized.

They were almost under the shade of the hangar when Ferd turned to her yet again. "This place is mostly safe, but just keep an eye above you. It was only the other day that two people were killed when a servicing crusader fell on top of them."

The surprised even Lightning. "A crusader _fell_ on them?" she questioned. Crusaders were typically a combat type assault automaton. There were heavily armed, and had superb maneuverability. Falling thus was not really a usual problem with them, though fatalities involving them were quite common. But those weren't accidents, generally.

"Yeah, I don't know how it happened either."

"Great," Lightning commented, eyeing the several crusaders and watchdrones that were flying around above her.

When they were well inside, near the rear of the hangar, Lightning finally got site of some velocycles, all the same familiar types she had used before in the GC, and fought against as a Pulse l'Cie. The one they were approaching was a Faclo type, red in color and the cab had obviously been augmented to seat four instead of the usual one or two seats. It the made the usual sleek design of the velocycle look pretty bulky. But wasn't what was being modified. The propulsion had some 'attachments' that Lightning hadn't seen before; they looked sort of like caps on the ends. The Falco was already pretty fast without modification. This thing looked at least like it could go a lot faster. Lightning could only wonder how safe it actually was.

"Well, look's like it's done at least," Ferd said, palming all over the surface of the thing. "Yeah, I thinks it's good."

"What exactly did you have done to it?" Lightning asked.

"Just a couple tweaks here and there."

"A couple of tweaks…?" Lightning tapped her finger on the end of the velocycle.

Ferd just shrugged. "All depends on your point of view." He attention suddenly turned behind her, and Lightning turned around to see one of the mechanics walking towards them. "This is our guy. Hey Chief!"

"Commander, lieutenant." he greeted in a reserved tone. Lightning gave a casual "hi" back. He seemed a bit anxious, almost like he was waiting to tell them something.

Ferd responded before he had the chance though. "So is she ready?"

The mechanic took a deep breath. "Yes sir. We…we got all the stuff you asked. The fuzors, the thrust amplifiers, all of it…"

"Really? Fantastic! I had the feeling you guys might have trouble getting the computers systems to integrate." Ferd seemed very happy to Lightning.

"Oh we did, but we ah—were able to work through it."

"Great. So can I take it out now?"

"Yeah sir…that's what I wanted to talk to you about. Sir these systems are typically only used for racing craft. None of these things are rated for Falco velocycles."

"Does it work?" Lightning asked. It seemed like the obvious question if the functionality of the things were in doubt.

"Yes ma'am it _does_ work. It has quite a kick to it too."

"Well I have no problems then. Good work." Ferd climbed into the driver's seat.

"Sir even so…I'm breaking a bunch of safety regulations with this thing. The speed it's gonna have is insane."

"I know. That's the point. We," Ferd pointed to himself and then to Lightning, "are going to need a lot of speed. A normal cycle just isn't gonna cut it. Don't worry about regulations. Just make sure you include my name in the paperwork and it'll be okay. I promise."

The Chief took a yet deeper breath, exchanging glances with Lightning for a long moment. "Yes sir. She's all yours," he spoke as though he knew something they didn't. He walked away in a fluid motion that seemed to say that he washed his hands of the whole affair. Lighting paused for a moment. If a Chief mechanic gave her that sort of concern she would definitely have seconds. She looked at Ferd. He didn't seem to have a shadow of a doubt on his face.

"Thank you Chief." He turned his attention to Lightning. "So Light, what do you think?"

"About you or the velocycle?" she sassed, giving her best straight face.

"Ha. C'mon let's get going. I've been itching to try this thing out."

Lightning walked over to the other side of the velocycle, being careful not to trip over the large gattling cannon. "Shouldn't we move it out of the hangar before taking off?"

"Nah, we got plenty of room ahead off us, unless some big ass airship lands in front of the hangar. I'll just ease it out it open and then we'll take off. No problem."

` "Right," she said under her breath. With her right hand she fumbled around till she found the safety beat, and brought it around to the lock on the other side of her seat. A flash of an image of them crashing into something was on her mind.

Ferd, who wasn't wearing his watched her do this, and gave her light glare when she finished. "You still don't trust me do you?"

"Still working on it. And I'd rather live if we crash."

"For your information, I've done this sort of thing oodles of time."

"Oodles of times?"

"Yes, oodles. And I am no stranger to handling fast vehicles. See?" He started up the propulsion system, sending low vibrations throughout the whole vehicles. Everything around slowly sank, and the velocycle gently eased off the ground.

Lightning tensed up only a little bit. She had halved expected them to go lurching forward at high speed. But they didn't. Maybe he was competent?

"Alright, the way is clear. I told you there wasn't any…" Lightning gathered he was about to say "problem," but all she heard the low pitched howl of the engines as the velocycle rocketed forward, pinning her head far back into the seat. Before she was aware they were out of the hangar, speeding toward a large dropship that was docked ahead of them. It didn't even take a moment, not a microsecond for her to realize that they were on a collision course. Meters passing by the second, she thought maybe she could reach the controls, but also knew that the inertia had her pinned. There was no way she could escape it, but still she found it kind of funny. It was the second time in single day that she was faced with her own death. In that same moment though, the velocylce vectored upward sharply, passing safely over the dropship into the empty airspace.

Lightning breathed heavily in relief, her heart still pounding from the sudden rush. The day really kept on getting better and better. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to rejoin the Guardian Corps?

Ferd on the other hand was laughing in elation. "They weren't kidding when they said it had a kick. Ha!"

Lightning had a few coarse words she wanted to give in response, but she was still too shocked to get out more than a few staggered breaths.

"You going to keep your hand there all day?" he asked in a somewhat mocking tone.

Lightning looked down, to discover that she had been gripping his right arm with her left hand. She let go, folding her arms. Though she honestly was more angry about the whole thing than embarrassed. "Don't flatter yourself." She quickly said. "It was just a reflex."

"I'm sure of that. Still, nothing like rapid acceleration to get the blood moving right?" It said it with an odd amount of pep, almost like he had rehearsed it in his head.

It was only a moment before the thought occurred to her. "You did that on purpose. Didn't you?" The adrenalin going through her system gave the question a fair amount of venom.

"Yes I did," Ferd answered without hesitation. "I'm just trying to reiterate. Relax. Despite what you might think about me, there is a reason I hold my current rank. And there is a reason the Director put me in charge."

"Desperation?" Lightning responded, still agitated from the stunt.

Ferd just rolled his eyes. "Tighten your seatbelt." And the velocycle accelerated forward over the settlement.

They flew toward the round rotunda of Civic Center, passing over the titanic construction of the commercial and residential districts that were surrounding it. Giant supercranes loomed sometimes over a thousand meters high over the sites, almost continually active, shuttling steel after steel to the skeletal high rises. Even though it was hardly complete, the burgeoning scene had all the appearances of the former metropolis of Eden. And it was barely three months since Eden was decimated. Lightning had rarely even seen equipment like that. The people of Cocoon had constructed pretty much everything long before she was born, of course with the aid of the fal'Cie. With them gone it seemed improbably that they would have this construction ability. But they did. Mostly was still impermanent though. Lightning could see that from the air. Most of the structured were the temporary units, or simple stand alone buildings. The Civic Centers and its kind were the exception rather than the norm. Still it was possible, it might only take a year, just one year, for them to have sprawling cities on the lower worlds of Gran Pulse.

It was a moving sight, but it only lasted a few minutes. Soon they were past the giant Center, flying over the rat maze of housing units to the edges of the city. It certainly was a very fast velocycle.

Ferd pointed to a thin line the distance. "There. It'll be easier to see as we get closer. That's the main transit line that they have been constructing between the settlements."

The main line, Lightning took a harder look at it. It seemed to go one endless toward to the expanse of the plateau. It was mildly interesting. A few minutes passed, and as the Falco raced toward it she could start to make the finer details of the magnetic rail. Suddenly the conversation with Hope she had few days ago came back to her. She had proposed that when the transportation lines were up that he should go live with his dad. Considering how fast they were completing the new housing, it stood to reason that the rail shouldn't be far behind. Honestly to her the thing looked ready to go. "Why is it taking so long?"

"That's a very good question actually. How 'bout we go and take a better look?"

He vectored the Falco velocycle down on trajectory that eventually brought them in parallel with the track. It looked primed and ready, even up close. The black metal plates and the grayish ferroconcrete all looked exactly like what Lightning had seen back in Cocoon. There were electrical lines, running lights, security barriers, the works. So what was the problem?

"It looks ready. Why isn't it operational?" She asked Ferd. For some reason she had a hunch he knew all about it. And she was right.

"Well you're right. Mostly right. It's built and it's powered. The reason though the Director put a hold on it is because there are definite concerns about its safety."

"Safety? You mean Pulse creatures."

She saw a small glint of that wry grin again. "I knew you were sharp Lightning."

"They said during the meeting, that they were having trouble protecting supply lines from Pulse wildlife."

"That's right. Though in this case the situation isn't that simple," Ferd spoke more seriously.

"Why?" She was getting tired of his evasiveness. That and the length of the day was starting to wear on her.

"No one's quite sure what exactly has been attacking the lines."

Lightning wasn't sure what he meant by "no one." Had "no one" seen it, or had no one been left alive to tell about? She shot Ferd a questioning glance.

"Why don't we just go down and take a look, huh?"

Lightning nodded in reply, though warily. Her brand new commanding officer was not exactly making it easier to trust him with his evasive answers. She could she in his eyes that he was working out something, but what exactly was it? And more importantly what did it mean for her?

They flew along the lines for almost another ten minutes. Lightning occasionally leaned her head out the side to catch a glimpse of the settlement as they sped away from it. Her gut was fluxing with mixed emotions about the day, and with anticipation. She kept giving Ferd odd glances but he would return them with innocuous replies. He really was a strange person. It led Lightning to wonder though, was this really the life of special forces, constantly questioning other peoples intentions? Considering what happened to Cocoon though, maybe that wasn't such a bad idea?

Eventually they can upon a section of the rail the stood out from rest. From their altitude it almost looked like it was bent slightly awry. Lightning could tell that was not the way it was supposed to look.

Ferd nodded to it as they approached. "Here we go. This is why we haven't been running any trains across this thing."

They descended until they were only several meters above the ground. Lightning saw then what only looked like a slight bending of the rail from above was anything but slight. It looked totally devastated, warped and broken, looking like something had chewed the line in its mouth like a stick of licorice. Part of the foundation of the tracks had even collapsed, and was lying several centimeters bellow the rest. Whatever had happened, Lightning was sure no train would be able run with part of the rail in that shape.

They landed the velocycle on a patch of relatively barren around adjacent to the damaged section of the tracks, and got out. Lightning pulled her gunblade out. She still had plenty if ammunition even after the earlier fight with the dual behemoths, and it appeared to be working just fine, no jamming or bending that sometimes happens. Satisfied she slung the sheath over her shoulder and waiting for her commander.

Lightning half expected that Ferd would use something similar, maybe not the standard Blazefire saber that she used but something analogous. After all there were a lot of different gunblades. Instead though, he pulled out an oversized katana with a blade almost 1.5 meters long, almost as tall as she was. She had seen swords like it before though and they weren't standard by any means. Though it lacked the flexibility of a gunblade they it something called variable blade technology. With a simple set of controls on the handle the user could adjust the dimensions of the crystal lattice that it was composed of. It was a lot more than just making it sharper or duller, the user could introduce a resonance that allowed the sword to cut through just about anything. Basically it was the most elegant and sophisticated version of a chainsaw every conceived. The flip side is that thing was incredibly dangerous. There were at least a few cases where people cut off there own arms. That feature though did lead to catchy nick name though. The old Sanctum had hordes of such exotic weapons.

"A sonic sword?" Lightning said as Ferd walked by her with the katana resting on his shoulder like a rifle.

"Yeah. It might be a bit cumbersome, but it's my preferred weapon. It can be really useful in certain situations."

"You any good with it?" She was a bit curious. He was SpecRec, but still those sort of weapons were notoriously difficult to use.

"Pretty good. How good are you with that toy?" He nodded to her gunblade.

"You'll see." She curtly replied, and they resumed walking toward the rail line.

The rail had looked dilapidated from the air, from the ground it looked even worse. As they walked toward it Lightning could see an occasional spark erupt from a severed power line, many of which were exposed to the open air. Several sections even looked then had been melted by something. And all of that was in addition to the whole foundation of that part of the track collapsing. Whatever had did the damage, it was huge.

"Looks pretty eaten up, doesn't it?" Ferd said once they were a bout a meter from the track. "I bet HQ doesn't even know about this yet. We're probably the first ones here.

Lightning's eyes ate up the whole scene. Her mind raced over all the myriad of Pulse monsters that could have done the deed. "No one knows what did this?" She asked Ferd again, hoping for a straighter answer than what he had said in the air.

"That's right," he acknowledged while hopping onto the ruined magnetic rail track. "The same thing's been showing up for over a month now. No ever sees what happens. We've been trying everything. Combat air patrols, barriers…you see those?"

Lightning looked out to where Ferd was pointing. She hadn't seen them when they had come down, but there were dozens of what looked like stand-alone-fence post dotted all over the area. "Yeah."

"Those are motion sensors. If something walks by they snap an image of it. It's not like the pictures are bad, it's that they haven't even detected any movement. It's like a ghost is coming in and messing with the line."

"What about the air?" Lightning proposed. "It could be something that flys." Lightning had plenty of experience with those creatures on Pulse.

"That's a no too. We've chased out anything big enough to do this. Plus we have active radar all over this area, and they haven't seen anything either. The transportation guys are really starting to get little desperate."

"I'll bet." Lightning starred at one of the warped running lights. She was sure it had to have been something's before. She was on Pulse weeks before the Fall of the Cocoon, traveled a few hundred kilometers on foot. She had a pretty impressive knowledge base to work from. But still she was coming up with nothing. Then again she hadn't been to this specific part of Pulse before.

"If you were wondering what I've been doing these past few weeks this it. And despite all my talents, I've come up with a nice round goose egg. Though it looks like there is some good news," Ferd spoke out of nowhere.

"Why?"

"This is definitely pretty recent. Let's look around. We might find something."

Lighting sighed at the thought. Looking over the warped mess, it didn't seem like there was much to find. She looked at the Sun. It must be close to late afternoon, but she felt like she had lost all tack of time. She still wasn't wearing a watch. "Yes sir."

There were scattered bits of metal lying around, some look like they had blasted off, others looked like they had been ripped off. There were obvious depression in the dirt, like something massive has been treading over the area, but they too indistinct to make any determination. They also disappeared quickly as looked away from the tracks. That wasn't going to work. She looked over the exposed lines, the foundation, the barriers…etc. and nothing jumped out at her. It was all just destroyed without any trace.

She decided the ground was useless, and hopped onto the tracks. She found her commander crouched down over the tracks, fiddling with and open panel on the tracks. She walked over, wondering what else he was up to.

"What are you doing?"

"The tracks have multimeters built in every section. It should have recorded the time when the damage was done."

"It's not going to tell you much anything you don't already know." Lightning commented.

"Sure, but we'll at least know exactly how late we are to the party. Okay…" He pulled out a small yellow device. Lighting peered over to get a look, but the reflection from the Sun obscured the screen. "Oh," he remarked calmly. "It only happened about two hours ago."

"Two hours?" Lightning repeated. That wasn't that long. She then quickly scanned the immediate vicinity. Even the fastest Pulse non-flying wildlife would still likely be nearby. "It can't be that far away then."

"No it can't." Ferd stood up, scanning the horizon the same way Lightning had done. "So, Lightning. You got your first orders, so how about a first mission?"

"Which is…?" She asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Ferd replied. He pointed his sonic sword down the tracks. "We find this thing and we kill it."

She could've guessed, but there was one complication. "We don't exactly know where it is, or where it's going."

"True, but we know it was here recently. As you said it can't be that far away."

"But we don't know what we're looking for. If we just go flying around there's no gurrantee we'll find anything."

"We probably wouldn't find anything doing that. But I have a theory…" He tapped his index finger on his temple. It seemed really idiotic to Lightning.

"What theory?" Lightning groaned. He still wasn't being entirely forthright with her. How was she supposed to trust him if he kept doing this?

"Glad you asked. I actually have been looking into this for the past few weeks. We never see the attack happen or what does it, but strangely enough, they always come in pairs."

"So?"

"Well I don't think this thing attacks the line for the fun of it. It's just trying to walk across and the rail's in its way."

That struck a chord in Lightning's mind. "You're telling me it tears it way through the line so it can walk across it, and then later it…"

"Walks back," Ferd finished her sentence. "That's exactly what I'm saying."

It made sense. Plenty of the monsters she had seen did that sort of thing. "Okay. You still don't where it's going to cross."

"Yeah but I'm betting it's that far away from this location."

Lightning sighed. Of course he was going to gamble on something. But, she couldn't rule out that she herself wouldn't do the same thing. "What do we do then? Patrol the rail line all night?"

"That would be pretty tiring. Nah, my idea is that we just wait up there." Ferd pointed the tip of his long katana to a short mesa nearby, and then jumped off the track, walking toward the velocycle.

The mesa was about twenty meters tall, enough to stand out over most of the plateau. It should give them a fair view of the surrounding area. Lightning though was hardly looking forward to it. "It could take all night for this thing to show up," she called after him.

"It might even take much longer than that." He turned around. "I could call for the regular infantry to head it up, if you're not up to it—Lightning."

Lightning rolled her eyes this time, putting her hands on her waist, starring into the ground and all in all trying to find some reason why she shouldn't just shoot Ferdinand Journeyman in the back. Because she would be marked, hunted again by the former Sanctum? Not good enough. He was pushing her buttons, mocking her as a tactic to force her compliance. Why not? He had been doing it all day.

She gritted her teeth and looked at the mesa, at the ruined track she was standing on, at the crystal remains of Cocoon, and then at her new commander. It surely was bazaar world she was in. She almost wished for the old days of l'Cie, fal'Cie, magic and mayhem. All of that at least didn't involve dealing with Ferdinand Journeyman.

Ferd. Lightning was not about to let him have the last word though. She still had her pride.

Lightning jumped off the tracks, walked over to the velocycle at sat down with determination as Ferd was starting up the engines. "Just don't get in my way when the fighting starts."

Ferd just smiled as the velocycle lifted off toward the mesa.

Lightning wasn't sure how long they had been there. All she was sure of was that the Sun was just about to set and there wasn't any sign of anything. Nothing but a very quiet and large rail line spanning in one direction and the other, no vicious behemoths, no flying monsters, hardly even any bugs in her line of sight. There was just the faraway Settlement A and whatever aircraft flew overhead. Overall a thrilling scene. It was exactly the sort of duty Lightning hated. It was exactly the sort of activity that Lightning most hated. Guarding and waiting, or by their more familiar name, perpetual boredom. Still she wasn't going to let herself nod off. Ferd showed no signs of fatigue, so she wasn't going to either. She just hoped that she didn't fall asleep with her eyes open.

She still wasn't very good about not letting her mind wander. She thought about Hope of all things. What was he going to think when she didn't come home that night, or the next night since by the look of things the stack out might just last that long. He wouldn't starve she knew. There still was almost the entire stipend left that she had gotten the Monday before. She couldn't help but feel that he might just get lonely. Though she herself wasn't exactly the best company. She found herself hoping that he might fall with the NORA crowd. Some of them were descent company at least. Then again Lebreau might just get Hope drunk.

She looked over to Ferd again. He appeared exactly the same, relaxed and oddly stoic. He had an air of certainty around him that got under Lightning's skin. Why did he have to be so self assured? The thought occurred to Lightning that she might just be envious of him, but she quickly dismissed that as stupid.

Lightning thumbed her gunblade, tapping her right index finger on the trigger guard as she kept her eyes peeled over the area. She found herself wishing that the monster would just come already so she could go home. If not that she wished she could go anywhere besides just sitting in a parked velocycle waiting for who-knows-what. How on Pulse did she get stuck in this situation anyway?

"Don't be anxious," Ferd said to her like a mother reminding her children to brush their teeth. She looked at him but he hadn't moved at all, still as stoic as a statue.

"I'm not anxious."

"Okay don't get impatient then. Try not to think about what's going to happen."

"What am I supposed to think about then?" she asked.

"Whatever you want really. Just make sure you watch what does happen."

It was same didactic tone that he had adopted earlier when they were walking to the machine shop, and Lightning had to quickly quell her displeasure.

"Are you my schoolteacher or my CO?" she asked, not really looking for an answer.

"Bit of both really." Ferd replied, and Lightning gripped her gunblade yet a little tighter.

She took a deep breath. He was so sure of himself, so "wise," so "knowledgable," yet she couldn't forget that he had gotten lost inside HQ. She wondered what she was going to tell everyone when she got back. "I got my dream job, and I hate every moment of it." It seemed a bit absurd. And it was just her first day. How many more like it would there be?

"How've you been recently Light?"

"What?" She had the question but she was bit too far in thought to process it.

"Well what've you been doing since Cocoon was destroyed?"

She found herself reading some nepharious motive behind the question. "Not much."

"Alright," Ferd replied. A moment passed before he spoke again. "You have any family that made it out?"

Lightning became very defensive. She didn't want to give him any more information to mock. "What are you asking?"

"I'm just trying to talk to you Lightning. We've got a little time to kill."

Lightning swallowed hard. She was overreacting—a little bit.

"I have a younger sister," she replied, much more calmly.

"Really? That's cool. She have the same color hair as you?"

The questioned surprised her enough to make her grin. "Yeah."

"You two a lot alike then? Does she want to go into the military?"

"No." They were worlds apart. If there was a gene for optimism and pessimism, Serah got the first and she got the latter.

Ferd seemed to read a lot into her tone. "Do you two fight a lot?"

The conversion was getting to a level of personal that Lightning typically didn't like to go to. And Ferdinand Journeyman was the last person she would then consider talking to about such things. But at that moment he seemed totally different than before. The pompous Ferd was gone, replaced by much more unjudgemental one. A complete reversal, a the fury that Lightning had harbored was tempered a little bit.

"We used to. We've been on better terms lately though."

"Glad to hear it. My family, well we've been astranged for long time."

"Sorry."

"Don't be. Just make sure it doesn't happen to you and your sister."

Lightning didn't need anyone to tell her that.

She thought for moment whether she should tell more. What could it hurt? "She's getting married in a few months."

"A wedding! That's fantastic." Lightning laughed at his small outburst. "What?"

"You don't seem like the kind of person, Commander, that would like weddings."

"Everyone loves weddings. No matter who they are. It's what philosophers call a tautology."

"What's that?"

"Something that's always true."

Lightning leaned her right arm against the side of the velocycle. "Sure."

"You don't believe me?"

"Didn't say that."

"No you just roll your eyes and twist your fingers in your hair. Trust me, even if they're horrible for each other, even if the families are on the verge of a blood feud, at the wedding it's all forgotten. It's the happiest of endings."

Lightning just looked out over the magnetic rail line, trying not to laugh. "Of course."

"Fine. Be a pessimist. But don't tell me you never dreamt of getting married to the man of dreams."

"Yeah," Lightning conceded. She had the normal preteen and childhood that most girls went through. She wasn't a hard ass her entire life. "But I grew up."

"What a shame too—since you're so old," Ferd retorted.

That one hit home. Lightning knew he wasn't trying to criticize her, but that critique was one she herself had been making. Yeah, she was prickilly and abrasive to the point of turning others away. Everything seemed to be reminding her about that.

"I'm realistic," Lightning said, for a weak defense at least.

"Yeah, me too. So one realist to the other, cheer up! Things aren't that gloomy."

Lightning internally hoped that was true. "Yes sir."

As the hours went on and the Sun finally set, there was still a whole lot of nothing happening along their little section of the new magnetic rail line. It was one of those times that made a person think that time had indeed stopped, leaving Lightning doomed to forever sit in vigil for a enemy she knew nothing about, with a commander she wished she knew nothing about. And for all her prayers, there was no sign it would change as the hours went on.

They was some conversation, mostly short small talk that Ferd would initiated. Other times she would think of something to ask him about the CCA, GC or whatever to which Ferd would give a detailed tutorial that she would only half listen too. But still for the most part she sat slightly staring at the line of lights on the ground that was the rail. Though Lightning had been determined not to nod off, the boredom, combined with the already long and tiring day, conspired to make her fall asleep.

* * *

Lightning recalled feeling increadibly relaxed and content when a hand grabbed her arm and shook her.

"Light," he spoke very softly.

Lightning was certain she back in her bed, at home. So then it was okay for her to be sleeping in. It took her a moment before she remembered where she was.

She saw the blurred line of lights on the ground first, then the dim outline of the velocycle cabin started to come into focus. It seemed an entirely to what it had been before.

She groaned audibly. She must have been deep in sleep because she was just as groggy as the morning after she had been drinking with Lebreau. She ran her hands through her hair, shook her head and rubbed her eyes. How could she have let herself fall asleep?

Before she could scold herself more she noticed a hand holding something small between the thumb and index finger. She took from his hand before she knew what it was: smelling salts.

It was a gift of dubious gratitude, and she had never used them before. She would have preferred a hot cup of coffee, but she was with special forces now.

"Thanks." She grudgingly said and took a whiff. As bad as she had always heard they were, Lightning thought they were worse, and couldn't stop herself from coughing a little bit. But there was no question she was awake now.

"Sorry. I was really hoping this thing wouldn't show up till morning. I hope you're well rested." Ferd began to start up the velocycle.

Lightning shook off the remaining effect of the smelling salts, and looked at the magnetic rail line. It looked exactly the same as it had before she had fallen asleep.

"Where is it? I can't see it."

"Eleven-a-clock down. Just keep your eyes there and you will."

Lightning looked to where he said. At first there was nothing, just an empty track. But then she saw the faint flash of a distant spark, and one of the running lights blinked and went out.

"Lightning," Ferd hailed her. "You see the consol, and the control stick in front of you?"

Lightning looked. In the darkness it was little more than a black shape against pale gray background of small electronic lights. She reached out and grabbed the sleek plastic of the stick.

"Yeah," she acknowledged.

"That's the gattleing cannon control. You know how to use it?"

It had been awhile but like every recruit into the former Sanctum's military she got training in how to handle heavy weapons. Groping the control stick she found the safety and the trigger, moved it and right, hearing the corresponding movements of the barrels outside the cabin. "Yeah, I do."

"Keep you finger off the trigger till we get close. Not that you might care that much but it is my ass that will feel the heat if we damage that rail line."

Lightning grinned. It was tempting, but she would never do something like that—deliberately. "I'll be careful."

"Okay." With the outward lights off and under minimal power, Ferd slowly lifted the velocycle off the surface of the mesa, vectoring eleven-o-clock down, straight at where the creature was attacking the lines. To Lightning the small aircraft seemed to move at a snail's pace. She kept her eyes zeroed on the target, never blinking, never letting her attention wander. She had seen enough Pulse wildlife during her tenure as a l'Cie to know that even in the air at a distance they weren't exactly safe. It doesn't even have to be something that's alive either. There were plenty of ancient Pulsework robots meandering around, and many of those could fire projectiles. Though most of those ballistics were either short or medium range.

It took only about a minute before they were in range. Ferd then ignited the velocycle's spotlights and Lightning moved her index finger to the firing trigger. Where Lightning had expected to see a howling disgusting monster, there was only the damaged running light and the shredded barrier. Lightning shot glances around her side of the velocycle and behind it, but the darkness was utterly opaque.

"Where did it go?"

"It's still around. Look at other barrier." Lightning did, noting that it was still in pristine condition. "Just keep your head on a swivel."

Ferd maneuvered the velocycle to search for their quarry. Lightning made out similar depressions in the ground to what she'd seen earlier. They made a clear set of tracks coming toward the rail, but not moving away. It was still there; she could feel it in her spine.

Lightning looked down at the edge of the track. The running light was still giving off a lot of sparks. Lightning then saw something else that she couldn't identify. The air near the broken barrier suddenly began to shimmer, not like the air over a h;ot grill but more like a million small fire-flies. Lightning blinked her eyes several times, just to make sure it wasn't her head acting screwy from the smelling salts. Then she saw what had been the surface of the rail line was replaced by a hulking black shape directly bellow the hovering velocycle, still tearing at the barrier. It looked like their quarry had found them.

"It's bellow us!"

Ferd didn't take a moment to doubt her, and peered his head out to look below. He arched an eyebrow when he saw it. The hulking shape continued to struggle, turning what had been a quiet seen into a cacophony of wrenching steel. There was a loud snapping sound as the creature suddenly broke free of the last piece that was restraining it. Lightning could tell that it wasn't going to stay there for long, and considering how dark it was and how easily the monster is able to hide if it got away from them, they wouldn't be able to find it. So she had to act right then.

"I'm going in. Give me some cover," she said, not even looking at her commanding officer.

"What?" she heard Ferd say right as she jumped off the side of the velocycle. Lightning thought it was sort of funny. It was the second time that day she had said that.

It was a short fall and she was falling directly on top of her quarry. Lightning had just enough time to unsheathe and deploy her gunblade. She held it in both hands and drove the blade into the hide of the creature.

Lightning knew how reckless the maneuver was from the start, but as the monsters wailed in pain she found herself being thrown around like a rag doll, she really began to question the wisdom of her stunt. With one hand on the grip of her gunblade and the other holding onto the monster's scaled skin, she held on for dear life, occasionally using her legs to move herself out of the way when a clawed leg reached up to try and swat her. Eventually the blade slipped and Lightning found herself flying through the air toward the deck of the rail track, her weapon landing a few meters ahead of her. She quickly picked herself up and readied to empty several shots in the beast's head.

Only there was nothing there.

Lightning scrutinized the scene several times before she lowered her gun, though in disbelief. It was right there. It was directly in front of her. So how could something that big just vanish? The only thing that was left to confirm that there was anything there was the damage to the rail line and a trail of blood leading over the edge and into the dark expanses of the plateau.

Lightning walked to where the trail of blood and the edge met, peering into the darkness. Her heart was still pounding and her senses still keen. The lights of the velocycle came upon her then as it landed few meters away. Lightning shielded her eyes, barely able to make out the shilouette of her CO as he walked toward her.

"That was gutsy. A little bit stupid, but still gutsy," Ferd said as he walked up to her. "It would've been smarter to wait for me to bring the guns around though."

"There wasn't time," Lightning repeated her rational halfheartedly. "It would've gotten away. It still got away." She moved some of her hair that was dangling in front of her eyes.

"Don't be so down. That," Ferd pointed to the blood running over the side, "is something we can track."

Lightning looked at the blood, noticing the small amount that had made it onto her uniform jacket. "Did you get a good look at it?"

"Sort of. It's big, black and has some huge teeth and claws. It jumped over the side before I could get the lights on it though. It runs pretty fast but it's not much of a jumper. Probably why it has to claw its way through these tracks."

"Yeah," that was all Lightning had to say about it. She had been hoping end it there, one quick killing blow and that would be it, job done. But of course it wasn't going to be that easy. The dream wasn't about to end just yet.

"This thing definitely has the advantage in the dark. So I think we should wait till dawn. That agree with you?" Ferd asked.

"Sure. Why not?" Lightning said and walked toward the velocycle.

* * *

It was several hours before the Sun finally came up. Lightning found herself unable to just fall asleep and instead sat awake in a zombie like gaze which only alieviated once the dark of night finally gave away to the pale hue of morning. Ferd dissapeared several times into the darkness doing who-knows-what. Maybe sevicing the damage to the track. Lightning hardly cared though. She only thought of the creature, and the myriad of moves she should use to kill it.

She stepped out of the velocycle once there was a fair amount of ambient light. She found her commander was surveying the landscape with a pair of binoculars she didn't know he had. He turned and greeted her once she was fully out of the vehicle with undiminished pep. He had been up all night and still showed no signs of fatigued, while Lightning felt like the living dead. She couldn't help but be amazed at that. "Alright, we got a bearing on this bogey, 092, thata way." He pointed east, just shy of the rising sun. "Here's your chance to finish it off."

"…can I can finally end this miserable day," Lightning moaned. She was surprised how far from protocol she was, and she was also surprised about how little she cared. "Worst time going-back-to-work ever."

"Oh yeah. It's your first day back huh. Well it's almost over now. Just a mopping up operation."

The nonchalance about which he said mopping up caught her ear. She couldn't help but wonder if he was involved in the Purge, even though he was GC. Still is GC. SpecRec did whole bunch of top secret op's and certainly some of those were with PSICOM. Was he the kind of man that would casually cut a person in half? Did he drink the koolaid like so much of PSICOM? The thought quickly went passed though. With the way Ferd conducted himself, she knew the hard assed commanders of the former PSICOM wouldn't stand to have him involved in their operations.

Lightning hopped into the Velocycle first, followed closely by Ferd. "Here we go. Off into the sunrise." And they flew away.

It didn't take very long, and not very much effort to follow the blood trial the monster left. The thing bred profusely making a very visible mark on the ground to follow even from the air in the dim morning light. They followed the trail all the way to edge of the plateau, where the terrain changed from the rolling hillside of a stepped land to more sharply defined hills before the elevation declined into the lower valleys. The trail suddenly became scarce, which indicated to Lightning two things: the wound had stopped bleeding, and it was probably near by.

Ferd slowed the velocycle to a hover as they reached the edge of the mountains. "Well I can't see much from up here can you?"

"No," Lightning agreed. "We'll have to fight it on foot."

"You almost sound pleased. This time why don't you let me land this thing first before you jump out."

Ferd landed the velocycle on the last bit of flat ground before the hillside and set out to find the culprit beast. It wasn't long before they came across a fresh set of tracks in the soft earth, very fresh leading up into a small ravine. They had an odd shape, one that Lightning was sure she had never encountered before, but the size of the paw print in the dirt was consistent with the black shape Lightning had grappled with a few hours before. It must be the same monster.

"You ever seen anything like this?" Ferd asked as she was hunched over.

"No."

"Yeah figures. I was hoping it would just be an overgrown wolf. That would at least make the paperwork easier." Ferd took a deep breath taking his long katana off his shoulders. "Ready?"

Lightning unsheathed her gunblade pointing the barrel up into the sky. She nodded. Ferd took point running up into the ravine, keeping close the inside of the curves as he we went. Lightning stayed with him, less than five feet away each step, but still far enough to where she would have a clear shot at anything they might run into. They came across several carcasses of devoured creatures, most old enough to just be bones, but as the they ran the kills became more recent. It was all the proof Lightning needed that they were in the mouth of the monsters lair.

They came to blind turn. Ferd tool point near the edge of the corner with his weapon pointed toward the sky, his eyes fiercely looking forward. Lightning took her position, gripping her gunblade in preparation to following him out around the corner. Instead he turned to her with his finger over his lips then pointed up. She began to mouth "what?" as she had little idea what he meant when she heard the low growling of something. They had found it at last. Even after years of combat Lightning's still pounded with anticipation during those moments. She nodded back to him, ready to dish out hell on Pulse. Ferd put on that same wry smile and wiped around the corner in a blink of an eye. Lightning followed dashing out half-a-heartbeat later to face…

…nothing.

Lightning darted he eyes every which way. Trying to find the mark, it took several times to convince herself there was really nothing there.

"What?" She said into the air. Where could it have been? She had just the heard the thing, and knew it could not have been more than a few meters away.

In her frantic alertness she finally found Ferd who was looking about just as perplexed as she was. "I don't know," he said answering her question. For first time since she had met him the previous day she saw some genuine concern on fist face as he looked around. He had both hands firmly gripped on the handle of his sonic katana he carefully scrutinized the surrounding area.

Lightning gave out a loud grown of dismay. There she was peppy and eager to end this mission, and of course fate had different ideas. She lowered her weapon and put her hand on her hip starring at her great commander for further orders.

"We need to…" Ferd began when his eyes came over Lightning.

Lightning thought he was reacted to the expression her face. "Look Commander I'm just tired and…" She didn't have time to finish speaking when Ferd moving yet faster than she shad seen him move before grabbed her and threw down on her back. It was fast enough to send her into a mild state of shock. Her first thought was that she might pay him back until she saw the ruby red swirl that had replaced the area where her head was. The red swirl crashed into the side of the ravine a moment later letting loose a great explosion. Ferd then practically threw Lightning back onto her feet.

"Go!"

Lightning was gone like the wind even before he yelled, setting off out of the ravine. After couple seconds of all out sprinting she tried to look back to see how her commander was faring, and what the hell they were running from. The sound of one of those red bolts slamming against the ravine side was enough to dissuade her from that. When she was confident she had enough distance she took cover behind a boulder that was nice and thick enough to protect her and pointed her barrel.

It was an uncomfortable moment of silence before she heard the sounds of something approaching, which thankfully was her commanding officer. She stepped out from the cover to get a better angle over the space behind him as he ran toward her. He stopped right beside her, holding his sonic blade over his head in a fighting stance. The monster couldn't have been far behind but Lightning still couldn't see anything approaching which only made her more worried.

"Alright, we're out gunned here. You run back down to the velocycle and take off. I'll make my to you while get the guns ready to fire." He sounded deathly serious but Lightning wasn't about to run off.

"Sir I'm staying. I'm not going to leave alone with this thing."

"Well I'm glad you like me Lightning but…"

Neither of them heard the approach. But before saw the red swirl of energy floating midair, growing in intensity before it shot at them. This time though they weren't being ambushed. Ferd let loud yell and using the sonic lattice sliced his sword through the air producing a shockwave that met the red blast midair and dissipated it.

Lightning watched the whole sequence with her gunblade fixed on the point of origin of the ruby red shot. The air where it came from seemed to shimmer and shine with bright flashes of light, then the illusion faded away revealing the beast. Instead of dark black, as it had appeared that night before, it was a deep bloody red in color, with two massive forearms that had long spikes at the shoulders and great claws on the hands. Protruding from its mouth were two large tusks which spark with the same red energy. Near the top of its head Lightning saw deep gash as if a sword had been thrust into flesh. So there it was finally, the beast that had taken up so much of her time. The dread that she had been feeling waned. The monster was fierce but no more nightmarish than what she had fought. And she was going to pay it back for all the grief it had caused.

The beast quickly charged up another shot of energy and fired. Lightning leaped out of the way rolling into a crouch and fired a salvo at the creature's head. The monsters roared as the shots exploded on the surface but didn't penetrate. It was thick skinned. Ferd took the opening and leaped on the monsters shoulder, slicing off one of the spikes and brought his sword up for a killing stroke. Then the tail suddenly wiped up and knocked him forward. Lightning ran up to give him cover firing several shots before extending the blade and then sliced at the foreleg. The creature wailed the jumped up on its hind legs, knocking Light back as it did so. Ferd had recovered by then, and using his katana sliced at then exposed chest causing the monster to retreat.

It knew to be afraid then and began to slowly back toward the ravine as Ferd and Lightning advanced on it, saliva and the ruby red sparks glittering its open mouth as it did so. Lightning readied for the inevitable shot that was coming, keeping her commander in her periphery. Instead of a fireball though, a long snakelike tongue fired out and wrapped itself around Ferd's leg. It was fast enough that even he didn't have time react. "Woah!" was all Lightning heard as the beast wiped him up into the air caught him in his mouth.

Lightning was dumbstruck only for a moment. She had lost commanding officers before but never like, never so quickly. She gritted her teeth as the beast swallowed him. She might have been annoyed with him, but that thing had just given her one more reason why it had to die.

She emptied the rest of her shots, hitting in the lower torso and its right leg, causing it to stumble. She jumped up onto its neck and reopened she had given it the previous night. This time freed he sword and jumped off just as the monster began to thrash and hacked way at the area where Ferd had cut. She plunged her blade as deep as it would go. She hopped away as it slashed at her. It's tongue then wiped again, wrapping around her free hand and began to pull. She severed the disgusting appendage, but then monster charged forward, sending her flying several meters. Lightning cursed herself when she lost hold of her weapon when she hit the ground.

It landed right beside her, and before she could grasp the creature was upon her, pinning her to the ground with one of its enormous paws. She though about reaching for her knife as the monster opened its mouth to consume her just like her CO, but knew it would do little good at cutting the beast's hide. It had her. She couldn't believe after fighting much greater foes, this was the one that was going to do her in. She wasn't sure who to blame, Ferd or herself. Was it his fault for initiating this goose chase, or hers for not following his order to run away? She once knew better than to disobey orders like that, but she guessed her time as a l'Cie changed that. She closed her eyes in face of the grim doom.

Of course things weren't going to go down that easily. Instead of being eaten, her ears were deafened for a moment by a loud explosion, then she was in the air, then hit the ground in a shower of blood, guts and entrails that washed over every part of her person, in her hair, in her eyes and even in her mouth. And it smelled worse than terrible.

After the shock wore off, she sat up clawing the bits of flesh out of her mouth. She spitted and gagged until the stench and repugnance became too much and she vomited, adding her own stomach contents to the scattered contents of the monster. She then found the resolve to get back her feet. She found her gunblade in a pool of red goo , and picked off the ooze covered bits of organ tissue that were stuck to it. The entire ground looked like the floor of and exploded meat packing factory, worse even. All that was left of the monster was on of its back legs attached to half of its backside. What the fuck happened?

She walked forward through the muck holding down her stomach contents. She could feel the tissue even in her boots and socks. She only made it a few steps when a pick piece of tissue stood up in a great grown.

"Aw man!" The piece of tissue then tore itself in two revealing her commanding officer.

It was now plane what had happened. He was able to activate the sword inside the monster's gut and blast his way out with a shockwave. To Lightning to looked like he had risen from depths of hell.

"See I told you these things were pretty useful sometimes." He said, holding up his katana. "He might have been hard on the outside bit not on the inside."

"Yeah," Lightning barely said through the intense nausea. He smelled more horrid with each step he took toward her.

"Hey if you think that smells bad you should've been inside the thing bastard. Yeah!" Ferd fiddled around with his uniform jacket and then a large piece of something fell down by his feet.

That was the one thing too much. Lightning bent over and vomited yet again. Ferd walked up beside her. "Better out than in…" He gestured to pat her back.

"Don't touch me!"

Ferd looked at his ooze covered hand. "Oh yeah. Sorry. You know I was hoping to able to take some images back to base but…yeah. So…" He found one of the monsters tusks and severed a piece. "I'll just take this back. You know actually this isn't the first time this has happened to me."

Lightning simply glared at him with her hands on her knees, still hunched over with her grim coated hair in her face and an expression of pure rage.

Ferd couldn't hide his grin. "I guess you don't want to stick around right?"

* * *

It took them several hours to fly back to base. Mercifully Ferd landed right in the middle of the officers housing for the GC and she was able to use an empty quarters to get herself cleaned up, while her commander took care of the procedures. She showered for well over an hour, well past the recommended time given that energy was scarce, but she wouldn't let anyone tell her didn't deserve it. When she got out she found her old clothes were gone replaced with new ones that were exaclty the same except for her knew rank insignia for Lt. Farron was clearly labeled where her old had been. How Ferd did that so fast she wanted to know.

She left the unit to find Ferd standing by the velocycle waiting for her. "Like the new threads?"

"Yeah," she admitted. "How did you…"

"Well there privliges when you become a Commander. Anyone I guessed you needed a ride home right?'

"Sure," climbing in the same Falco velocycle.

"You were definitely right about one thing Lightning," Ferd commented when they took off.

"What's that?"

"We need more people to walk the beat with us. Just the two of us beatniks isn't going to be enough."

"Yeah," she agreed.

"Don't worry about it though. I'll take care of it. You've earned at least few days off. Besides you're not even on the payroll yet."

"What?"

"What did you expect you just got hired yesterday."

She couldn't argue with that. Yesterday to her though felt like an eon." She put her head in her hands.

"Relax!" Ferd said. "I'm going to make that a standing order for you."

She thought about punching him. And would have done it, if he wasn't flying the velocycle. The day was over but the future was hardly looking bright. But what else could she do?

"Yes sir."


	4. Mars and Zen

A/N: Sorry for the long wait. Very busy these last nine weeks or so, for the usual reasons. So here's the fourth one, some more OC's entering the picture. Hope you like them.

Mars and Zen

There was a great feeling of warmth and comfort that consumed Lightning, consumed her enough that she was content to just stay in bed for the rest of her life. She was vaguely aware of how long she had been there. She had returned to her unit a little while after ten in the morning, opened the door and set herself on a collision course with her mattress.

Of course Hope was there. "Where have you been?" he had asked in earnest soon after her magnificent face plant into her comforter. She was lazily trying at least to partially undress.

Lightning was groggy, stiff, sore and every other word of fatigue, and not in the mood to start telling what really was a long story. She responded, "Over the hills and through the woods." She was dead asleep soon after saying that.

Her sleep was deep, and dreamless. She was out for twelve hours before Hope succeeded in getting her to open her eyes. "You need to eat. C'mon Lightning get up." She was still too tired to make much of a protest, and forced herself to walk to the table.

Hope had somehow gotten some take-out for them to eat, a lot of beef and fresh veggies, and some steamed and fried rice. Pretty simple and cheap, but it smelled very good. Once she was at the table Lightning realized just how hungry she actually was and began to devour the food with the same voracity that giant monster had when it recently ate her new commanding officer.

Hope had gotten accustomed to most of Lightning's habits, but he hadn't quite seen that side of her yet. The usually ever reserved Lightning Farron was somewhat civilized in her eating manners. But at that moment to Hope she was eating a lot more like he and Snow usually do.

Eventually he was able to get the question in. "So what happened when you got there?" Simple enough.

Lightning was drinking some water, and put her glass down once the ball of rice she had just ingested was all the way through her esophagus. "They assigned me to special forces," she said tersely.

"Special forces? But…are you saying they put you in PSICOM?" Hope was almost choked on his drink as he asked.

"No," Lightning said, her mouth was still full of food. "The GC has their own special forces."

"Oh." Hope looked down, tapping his thumbs on the table. "Well what's it called? The unit I mean?"

"It doesn't have a name yet. It was just created the day I got there. The Director made me the adjutant commander."

"So…that means you're the second-in-command?" Hope asked almost carefully. He was obviously a little befuddled by the term adjutant. Lightning nodded in acknowledgement. "That's awesome," he yelled in enthusiasm, "but…"

"What?" Lightning asked, again with her mouth full.

"Don't you have to be an officer for that?"

"Duh!" was what she said in her head. But instead she swallowed while nodding. "They promoted me to lieutenant."

Hope was bouncing off the walls of their small unit with that news. Lightning was dumbfounded enough to stop eating, as she watched him twirl about the living room. Not to mention she was starting to feel a little full. She laughed at his enthusiasm but still felt dead from her ordeal the previous night and wasn't about to join in. Why exactly did her care so much anyway?

"That's fantastic! Let's go tell everyone!" Hope suggested in a very gun-ho fashion.

"Not a chance." Lightning sighed as she pulled herself back to her feet.

"C'mon. They'll be so stoked to hear that Light."

"I had a rough time yesterday Hope. I need some rest."

"But you slept all day," he protested.

"Yeah. Two more and I'll be caught up. Good night," she bid and closed the door behind her.

That was how her return went and spent the rest of the night, most the next day and night in her bed, warm, comfortable and definitely not wanting to be disturbed. She knew it was morning. She still didn't have any clock on her person or in her room, but her internal chronometer was pretty sure it was morning, the third day after she had gotten back. She also knew that she should get out of bed, but knowing was far from wanting to. It was funny since she wasn't sleeping all that well the nights before she returned to the GC.

After some indeterminate amount of time she heard the sound of someone gently opening the door, and the faint scratching of the bottom on the soft carpet. Her back was toward the door, but she knew it could only be Hope. She didn't move or say anything in hopes that he might just decide to leave her alone.

"Light?" he hailed her softly. She didn't respond. "Light?" he repeated loudly. She still didn't responded. It was probably something important she guessed, but whatever it was she was sure it could wait to a little while later. Hope was brave enough though to walk over to her bed and lightly shake her shoulder. "Light?"

She groaned and swatted away his hand. Sometimes he was just a little too needy. "What's the problem Hope?" stressing his name.

"Uh not really a problem," the trepidation of voice suggested the opposite, "but Serah called just now. She wanted to know if you guys could get together later today?"

The 'get together' part of that was a little strange. She and Serah didn't just "hang out," at least not very recently. It occurred to Lightning that it might be about the wedding. "I'll call her back," she responded and pulled the covers tighter around her neck. She expected to hear the sound of the door closing, but instead heard only Hope shuffling his feet.

"Uh Lightning…" he said after a moment.

"What Hope?" she said with great tired annoyance.

"Just one other thing," he quickly explained to try and mitigate her displeasure.

"Can't it wait?"

"Well…" he took a deep breath to get ready for the long explanation.

Before he could say anything though, someone else spoke up. "It's just a couple of small things Light. Won't take that long," Ferd said.

Lightning was upright before he finished his sentence to her knew CO standing in the doorway to her bedroom. Her bedroom! "What are you doing here?" she screamed, while scampering out of her bead and trying to dress herself at the same time.

Ferd stepped aside as Hope retreated out of the room. "I'm sorry just to show up like this, but I have some important stuff to give you."

Lightning let out an angry breath as her reply she hunted through her disarrayed room for her uniform vest. In the process she stepped and almost tripped over one of her boots. She looked up to see Ferd just standing there watching the scene like it was theater. "You mind leaving me alone for a moment while I get dressed?" she asked with a fair bit of venom.

"Oh sorry. Didn't mean to stare," he said with that nonchalance as he closed the door behind him.

It took her probably less than a minute to find everything and dress herself in her uniform, grumbling the whole time. She didn't exactly have a detailed knowledge of the military's "rules and regulations" but she was pretty sure that this was some breach of protocol. Badge on, boots tied, she took a look at herself in the mirror. Her hair didn't look that bad considering that she just combed it with a pillow. Anyway she was too annoyed to spend much time with it.

She opened the door and made the short walk from the doorway to the living room to find Hope awkwardly twiddling his thumbs at the table while Ferd was staring out the window. "What is it?"

"Well, 'good morning sir' would probably be a better greeting," Ferd responded with feigned indigence. "Besides you haven't even introduced me to your roommate yet."

Lightning was about to let loose a retort, which, she thought, he definitely deserved, but swallowed it. She knew better than that. Amodar would often give out sarcastic compliments and critiques and she never over reacted to those. But Amodar could never get under her skin the way Ferd could, and he never waltzed into the women's barracks either. Hope looked up from the table at his mention, meeting Lightning's gaze. The fact that he was in the room was enough to stifle some of her wrath at least.

She sighed, "Hope this is Lt. Commander Ferd Journeyman." She gestured to her commander.

Ferd leaned over and shook Hope's hand vigorously. "Hi."

"Uh—hello," Hope replied eyeing Lightning,

"He's my new commanding officer," Lightning added.

"Oh." Hope said, very bewildered by the whole awkward situation.

"Don't be too impressed by that. Lightning's one hell of a soldier. She gave me a run for the money her first day on the job," Ferd said to Hope.

"Really! What happened?" Hope asked. He didn't get any explanation from Lightning when she got back.

Ferd was about to start, but Lightning cut him off. "I'll tell you later Hope. Sir, you said you had something for me."

"Right. It took a few calls to get it pushed through but here it is." He handed Lightning a leather bound folder. "You're officially a lieutenant in the GC's new Autonomous Special Operations Division."

Lightning opened the folder to find her name written in script, with the official letterhead of the GC on the top followed by a new seal she hadn't seen before, a red griffon emblazoned with a blue ribbon. It was the seal for her new division, obviously inspired by the monster they had just killed. There was also smaller folder containing the same seal but it was in a bronze badge and her new I.D.

"Not the greatest name in the world. I didn't have anything to do with that. Director's office decided on it. I did get the seal made though," Ferd explained as she looked it over.

"Yeah," Lightning said closing the folder. It was interesting sure, but felt it was hardly a good reason for Ferd to coming waltzing into her home like he did.

"Can I see it Light?" Hope asked. And she handed it to him.

"Is that it?" she asked, folding her arms.

"Don't look so happy. Here." He tossed a small portable phone. It was black in color, a lot like the one Serah used to own back in Cocoon. "With voice _and_ text, in case you were wondering. I doubt we're going to have regular hours so I thought this would be the best way."

"Okay," Lightning said, slipping it into one of pockets on her leg satchel.

"You know how to use one of those right?" he asked mockingly.

"Yes Commander I know how to use a phone," she hissed back at him.

Ferd simply gave her his same wry smile.

"So how many people are in this division?" Hope asked finally looking up from the folder.

"So far it's just the two of us. You aren't looking for job by any chance?"

Lightning could feel Hope was about to say "yes," and while she was pretty sure Ferd was kidding, she decided not to take any chances. "No he isn't."

"Oh, that's too bad. Well I'll be in touch soon Lightning. Keep the phone handy. Nice meeting you Hope," he said saluting as he turned for the door. "Say hi to your sister for me Light. Tell her congratulations!" The door closed behind him.

"Fat chance," she muttered under her breath.

"He seems pretty cool," Hope commented.

"Cool, yeah. Professional, no way."

A few hours later Lightning was walking into a part of the settlement she had never been to, which was because it was a part of the Bazaar that had just recently been opened to the public. Even though she still felt a little exhausted, it was actually a nice reprieve to go someplace relatively new. When she had called Serah back after the Commander had left, her sister invited her to go to lunch at some new café, the name of which Lightning didn't catch.

As the conversation went:

"I want to hear how it went the other day. I stopped by, but Hope said you were pretty dead from you're first day."

"There's not really much to tell," Lightning replied, downplaying.

"Yeah right! I never saw you come home that exhausted back in Cocoon."

"That's because you were asleep when I came home." Lightning could recall a few times when missions left utterly beat back when she was in the Bodhum Security Regiment. Those times she still usually made it home before dawn the next day.

So that's how it went. After the call Lightning packed some of the loose cash she had Hope had for the week. She glanced at her sheathed gunblade, slumped over the chair by the table, right next to the new phone her CO had just handed to her. She was just going to lunch and she wasn't exactly on duty, but still Ferd was sort of a "random" person.

She met her sister outside out her sister's housing unit. "No Snow?" Lightning asked.

"He left earlier this morning for something. Wouldn't tell me what," Serah replied happily. Must have been something related to the impending wedding.

"So you're going to have it at the end of May?" Lightning asked once they started walking.

"Oh I hope so. Snow would like to do it today. But I want us to a new place before we do it. And I heard they aren't going to start moving peopling in until mid-April. We're pretty high on the list, so we should one soon after. What do you think?"

Lightning's mouth hung open for a moment as she grasp at straws for something day. No ideas really came to mind, it was like she just didn't have and opening on it. She looked to side, "Sounds fine to me."

Serah elbowed her then. "C'mon! You don't have to be so reserved about it. I know you have something to say."

"Ugh," Lightning look around at all the people walking, hoping to find some words to express what she was feeling. "I don't know Serah. I'm just really confused right now."

"You think I'm not?" Serah asked. "I'm getting married Lightning! This is like the biggest moment of a girl's life. I should be freaking out."

"But you're not."

"That's because I'm getting a lot of help. You know I never thought I would get married before you did Lightning."

Lightning gave a sort of confused laugh. The suggestion that she _would_ actually get married was almost comedic to her, considering the kind of guys she tended to hang around with. Without thinking she replied, "I thought you'd be older."

"See! You do have an opinion. You think I should wait."

"Didn't say that," Lightning said, trying to recall that statement.

"It's what you meant though right?" she persisted.

Lightning took a deep breath, stopping her walk so she could face Serah. "Look Serah, I'm done trying to tell what to do. It's your decision to make. Whatever you decide, I'll support you." The candor it required to say that was enough to make Lightning very uncomfortable, even in front of her own flesh and blood, especially in front of her own flesh and blood.

Serah face slowly contorted into an expression of such contentment she was almost about to cry. And before her older sister could slip away she captured her in a great big bear-hug. "Thanks."

Lightning barely had to coordination to hug her sister back. A lifetime of regret was all coming back to her at once. All the mistakes she had made, all the undeserved hurt she had caused Serah before she had woken up to the truth. She tried not to relive it all though. That was the past, not the future, and it was probably best left forgotten.

Serah released her after a moment, "Okay let's go get lunch." She said and grabbed Lightning's hand as she ran down the street.

They arrived at the location a few minutes later, a location that when Lightning had last seen it was little more than a parking lot for materials for the various construction projects going on. And that couldn't more than a week ago. Unlike most other places in the Bazaar this area was much more permanent. Concrete sidewalks instead of a tar or gravel path, steel reinforced architecture, more than just a single story. Lightning suddenly felt that she had been asleep far longer than she had previously thought. That atmosphere of it all and the hordes of people walking through made her almost she was back in the old Cocoon. Once they were in the thick of the complex though, the newness became more apparent. Most of the spaces were empty. The few that were open were mostly smaller venues for smaller enterprises, like say a restaurant.

The place Serah had invited Lightning was brand new, and at least from the outside looked at bit more pricy than most Cocoon refugees could afford. Lightning unconsciously groped the pocket where she stowed her cash, worried that she didn't have enough.

Serah noticed her anxiety. "Don't worry. It's actually really cheap." Lightning was skeptical, but decided to take the chance, remembering the lunch she had with Hope the other day.

Serah was right. Price controls from the CCA and not to mention the shear reality that almost everyone was broke conspired to make a very decent meal that wasn't much over five gil, excluding the tip of course. For all the fancy things that were on the menu she suddenly had a savage craving for a big, meaty burger, with regular french-fries and ranch dressing, ketchup and all the soft drink she could stomach. She usually tried to be responsible in her eating habits, as Serah could attest, but Lightning felt some childish satisfaction in ignoring that side of her persona for one meal. It was good too.

Her sister was more than amused by this. "I can't remember the last time I saw you eating a hamburger," she commented after a moment.

Lightning had the finished the burger by that point, and was then gorging herself on the french-fries. "Pretty sure it was mom who bought me the last one."

"That's a long time," was all Serah said at the mention of their mother. It had always been that way with the two of them. The subject of their parents was always a conversation stopper. Lightning always had hesitated to bring it up because Serah was so young when their parents died and had felt the loss more potently. Of course Lightning herself was also really young.

"So now tell me, how did it go?" Serah suddenly changed the subject.

"What?" Lightning responded, honestly not sure what she was talking about.

"You know what I mean. What happened with the army that put you in bed the last two days?"

"Oh well…" How to describe it? She didn't want to go into detail of what happened, the airship crashing, the getting lost in the lobby… "They put me in a new special forces unit. My new commander though decided to take on a mission that night."

"They sent you on a mission on your first day!" Serah was surprised. There was supposed to be an unwritten rule about first days—no bullshit. "Is your new boss a workaholic or something?"

No way in hell, was what Lightning was thinking. "Not exactly. It was sort of random. He didn't plan it."

"Still that's ridiculous. Can you tell me what the mission was or…"

"We just had to go kill something that was attacking the mag-train. Big monster though."

"That doesn't sound like fun. But at least you have some experience that right," Serah said, referring back to Lightning's time as a l'Cie.

Lightning thought about the monster then. The creature that could turn itself invisible, fire energy bolts from its mouth, and was huge and thick skinned to boot; yeah she did have a lot of experience with that sort of thing. Still was never easy though.

"Yeah. I was promoted though. They made me a lieutenant," Lightning tried to sneak that in, just to avoid Serah having the same reaction Hope did. Didn't work though.

"What! Why didn't you tell me before? That should've been the first thing out of mouth," she was even more enthused than Hope was.

"It's not that big of a deal. They're really short on people."

"C'mon. You've wanted this ever since you joined the Guardian Corps. I know you have."

That was true. Lightning did always want to advance in her career, to have her own worth recognized. She jumped to take the written test that made her an NCO in the first place. She had to admit when Amodar offered to send off a letter of rec. for officer's training. She liked doing well. Who doesn't though? Lightning thought, though, that such things should be hard to get. She disliked awards that seemed arbitrary, and because of that some part of her still felt though that she didn't really deserve it, or at least wasn't ready for the promotion.

"You deserve it," Serah continued, as if she had heard Lightning's inner dilemma. "Congrats."

"Thanks," was all Lightning could think to say. She really was happy about it, she didn't just quite know it yet.

Lightning's ears began to something right then. At first she thought it was just a small bird chirping and looked up and then around the table. There were not any birds around though. "What the…?" It began to get louder.

Serah had noticed it too and was scouting the scenery for the source. "Light I think it's coming from you."

"Huh?" but of course the realization hit here. Reached into her pocket and pulled out the phone she had just received.

"When did you get that?" Serah asked intrigued.

"Uh it's for my job." The chirping had stopped before she could answer. Instead there were a few tones and then an icon saying "New Message."

"Who was calling?" Serah asked. Of course it could only be one person.

"It was my new commander." It had only been less than three hours since he gave the phone to her. Lightning guessed that what he meant by "soon." She read the message. "He wants me to fly to Settlement C."

"Work right?" Serah asked. Lightning nodded. "When do you have to go?"

"Ten minutes."

Serah's eyes went wide in disbelief. "Talk about short notice. Who is this guy anyway?"

Lightning sighed as she stood up. "He used to be in SpecRec, the Guardian Corps' commando unit." She checked herself to make sure nothing was missing, and to take some parting bites of her meal. "His name's Ferdinand Journeyman."

"What?" Serah said more as a comment than a question. Lightning agreed. "Good luck." Serah hesitated for a moment, thinking Lightning might just be tired of it, but in the end she thought "screw it" and rushed in for another hug.

"I know you'll be amazing," she said to her older sister then let her go. "I'll get the bill. You go okay?"

Lightning was about to say 'no' but then found herself being pushed in the direction of the LZ. "Go! I can take care of myself now."

Lightning couldn't argue with that. Not wanting to prolong the farewell, she gave Serah a quick wave and the started running for the LZ. On the way she pulled out the phone and hit the "redial" option.

"Hope I wasn't interrupting anything important," Ferd said when he answered.

Lightning kept a steady pace as she was dodging other pedestrians. "I was having lunch with my sister, Commander. What's going on?"

"Oh sorry. If you had answered we could have done this later. Where are you now?" he asked.

"I'm almost to the LZ."

"When you get there take the fastest transport available to C. I'll meet you when you land. Sorry for the short noticed, but we need to hurry if we want to catch this exercise."

"Exercise?" Lightning asked running around a mobile cart that was selling ramen.

"Yeah, perfect time to find some new beatniks to keep us company. I see ya when you get here," he replied quickly and ended the call.

"Recruitment?" Lightning muttered as she entered the LZ. It wasn't exactly an emergency situation, and Lightning wasn't sure why he wanted to have here there. He's the commander. He has the experience. Shouldn't he be able to do that on his own? Orders are orders though, and that's what Lightning reminded herself when she entered transportation office.

It hadn't changed at all since Lightning had been there last. The same arrangement of furniture, the same posters and fliers decorating the walls, the same person manning the reception desk were all still there. Lightning wondered if he was the only person manning the reception desk. Given the current state of the GC, that wouldn't be surprising.

"I need a ride to Settlement as soon as possible," she said, breathing slightly heavy from her jog to the LZ.

The receptionist had been so bored that he had practically been asleep when she walked and asked Lightning to repeat herself. She did and gave him her new badge and identification.

"Uh," he tepidly began, "the soonest one leaves from here in a couple of hours. Warehouse shipment for a bunch of minerals. I can…" he was going to say more, but stopped as he looked at Lightning's new ID. "Oh sorry ma'am. I didn't realize it was this kind of request. Just give me a moment…" He furiously flipped through multiple pages on the screen above the desk. "Okay, there's a PSICOM light transport on standby. I'll call the control so the pilot knows you're coming." He picked up small white handset.

Lightning was little bit confused. She hadn't expected it to be that easy. She was sure she was going to have to pull rank, threaten reprisals from her commander or something to get a transport. But the guy was doing everything but laying out the read carpet.

He hadn't told her where to go though. When she caught his eyes again she pointed to the door. "Oh it's on the far side of the platform."

"Thanks," she replied, retrieved her ID and badge and walked out. The thought occurred to her then that maybe her new job wasn't going to be that bad.

She found the aircraft just where the receptionist said it would be, on the far side from where she entered the LZ. She got there just as the pilot was firing up his engines.

"So you're the…guy?" he sort of mumbled at her. He sounded like he had just been woken up from a nap.

"Yeah, I'm the guy," she sassed back at him. Still it was a bit more respect than she had previously gotten from PSICOM pilots in the past.

"Great. Okay just tell me where we're going please—ma'am," he added, while Lightning was getting into her seat.

The receptionist had understated the fact when he said it was a small craft. It was barely bigger than a velocycle, a lot smaller than even the type-3 she had ridden on. Still with only two seats it wasn't bad.

"C. And I need to get there quickly."

"Alrighty then. Always happy to fly the GC, _all the places_ they need to go," he claimed and took off.

* * *

Less than two hours later she was looking over the skyline of Settlement C. The time surprised her. She knew B and C where fairly close, but she didn't realize how close. You could see the other if you were high enough in the airspace. She had just never thought to look the few times she had been in the air. From the air, Settlement C almost looked like a mirror image of B as well; everything was about the same scale; the LZ was by the market area; there was a large civic center, nearly completed dominating the central skyline, and that was surrounded by a bunch of high-rises. One could probably be fooled into thinking C was B, or vice-versa.

Unlike B though, C's LZ was quite a bustle of activity. Hordes of personnel shipped and supply tankers where flying in, loading/unloading and flying out. Lightning guessed C must be the staging base for the mining and energy operations. Not far outside the metropolis Lightning could see rows of solar power generators, connected by lines that covered the countryside like veins. She betted there was probably much more energy production going on not far from where she was.

The LZ was so full that the pilot ended up circling around a few times before the control tower granted him permission to land. He practically crashed the aircraft when they did. Lightning hardly cared though that he was in a bad mood. As long as she was able to walk away it was good landing. At least that was the philosophy she guessed Ferd might have.

"Here you are," the pilot groaned.

Lightning eyed him as she unstrapped herself. "Thanks," she replied with the same sarcasm. She jumped from the seat onto the concrete deck of the LZ. As busy as it was from the air, at ground level it looked even more like a beehive than the GHQ had been. Right in front of her a group of CCA workers were loading food from a heavy transport to ground vehicles. To her right there was a Crusader attaching a fuel line to a frigate. And whenever she looked up she found at least one craft taking off and one incoming. And all of that was in less than half the area the GHQ occupied. It reminded her of the congestion Bodhum would have during holidays; never very pleasant.

She walked to edge of the LZ keeping an eye out for a GC officer's uniform, but that wasn't exactly easy considering the several thousand people that were wandering around. After a minute of darting her head back and forth and she gritted her teeth in annoyance. Why couldn't he have been more specific about where they were going to meet?

She pulled out her phone and hit the entry for her commander's number. It rang once, twice and then a third time. "C'mon," she muttered. When the fourth came though she noticed an echo in the sound though and it was coming from behind her. She turned around to see Ferd walking leisurely toward her. He waved once they made eye contact and the pulled out his phone.

"Hey!" he answered.

Lightning just rolled her eyes, hung up the phone, then pushed her way through the crowd to where he was. "Okay I'm here, now what's this about?"

"I told you, we're recruiting, or more like scouting. There's a trooper squad that's doing some basic training today. It's a perfect opportunity," Ferd answered her. "Now let's get moving." He began to walk toward the main GC base.

"Basic training? You said we were observing exercises," Lightning reminded him.

"We are, like cadets learning to shoot. That's a pretty standard military exercise. One might even say it's the most fundamental," Ferd brushed aside her question.

Lightning tried to ignore the sarcasm. "We're looking for soldiers to join special forces," she stated.

"Yes." Ferd confirmed.

"In basic training?" she said sharply.

"Yep," he acknowledged again.

"Don't you think there are some higher-tier places to look?" she asked rhetorically.

"At the moment, no," he responded.

"Commander!"

"Lieutenant! Why don't you just wait and see Light? Trust me, I didn't choose this thing out of a hat." He said, as he entered the GC compound.

"Forgive me if I can't read your mind. What do you think we're going to find?" Lightning persisted.

"We'll know that when we find it. Now c'mon we're a little late."

Lightning gave up trying to wrestle the truth out of him for the moment. Why he was always dodging her questions like that was beyond her, and she decided it was better to stop trying to figure him out. They passed through market-bazaar district and were quickly brought right in front of a large converted carrier, the GC's main building in the settlement. It looked almost exactly the same as the building in B, Lightning noticed. Even in the absence of large manufacturing after the fall of Cocoon, things were still very standardized in the military.

Lightning noticed the on duty sentries eyeing them as they passed through the entrance but made no move to Ferd or her. She followed him as he walked right up to a receptionist, who directed him toward the lifts on the right. He thanked her and turned back to Lightning.

"Alright, they're on the fourth level. It's a shooting range."

"Who's they?" Lightning asked.

"Training group number 0105A, they're getting some standard weapon-handling lessons."

"And what's group 0105A?"

"Probably just group of candidates for infantry," Ferd answered her.

"So you're looking for one of them?" Lightning kept on.

"Not exactly." They entered the turbo-lift and the Commander punched in the key for the fourth level. "The reason I referred to isn't that training group."

Lightning had thought as much. "So then what's the point of this?" She was getting very tired of asking questions.

"Because there will be someone here we should be interested in," Ferd said as the doors of the lift opened to the fourth level.

"Someone," Lightning muttered to herself. She wondered who it could be, who was cause of her being dragged abruptly from her lunch date with her sister? The corridor they entered was narrow with rows of doors of doors on one side and view of the settlement. The long spacing between every door made it apparent that they were large, former storage bays that the GC was then using for a controlled space for training exercises. "Do you know this person?"

"No I don't. Unfortunately most of the people I knew in the GC didn't survive the Fall," Ferd replied.

Lightning vaguely remembered something being said that he was the last member of SpecRec, or rather that almost all special forces had been killed during the invasion. It occurred to her that fact meant most of the obvious candidates were gone too. So they had to start from scratch. "Sorry."

"You really don't ever need to apologize to me Lightning. Alright, I think it's just down the hall."

They neared the end of the corridor and Lightning thought she could hear the faint "popping" of automatic weapons fire, though it was much muted, as they approached. They came to a door marked "weapons training." Ferd swept his ID, and the door immediately opened to grant him access, no number code required. He turned and held up his card to Lightning before entering, "Oh and keep these handy. We've been given access to pretty much every part of the settlements and then some. So don't lose yours okay?"

"Okay," Lightning said, almost not paying attention to him as she walked through the door. She never did take warnings very well.

The "weapons training" room was about exactly as she remembered it to be, except for the fact that this room was inside an airship. There was a long, wide field with automated targets at the end. Each firing station was quartered off by tall transparent barriers, while the firing line was further surrounded by even taller barriers. The only noticeable difference was the height of the ceiling, there was no top protection except for the roof of the cargo bay. That was half dangerous, bullets ricochet to that angle were possible, but not very likely.

After taking in the room she started to observe the GC cadets on the line. They weren't any different either, mostly guys but it was more even than the Bodhum security regiment. Their firing was not terrible but it was still up to standards, easy enough to conclude that none of them were suitable candidates.

"So who are we looking for?" Lightning asked Ferd.

"Corporal Jac Mars."

Lightning looked around at the cadets and their instructors. "Who's that guy?"

"Not here actually. I don't see him."

Lightning looked at him, "Are we in the wrong place?"

"No."

Lightning sighed. She remembered it was only the other day that he had gotten lost trying to find a room. "You sure?" she pressed.

"Pretty sure. The Corporal's just not here."

Lightning was thinking about the same thing, but also didn't want to take the chance of missing this person. "I'm going to go find him."

Ferd rolled his eyes this time. "Do what you want, but don't take too long."

"Yes sir," Lightning answered. She walked to the door and motioned to button-door-control. But when her finger was centimeters way from it the door opened and Lightning was face to face with a large box of ammunition that proceeded to try to walk right through her. "Hey!" Lightning ended up yelling as she put out her hands to try and stop the person. By the time the box holder realized her mistake it was too late, the ammunition slammed against the door frame. Then it and the person holding it, fell to the floor barely missing Lightning's foot. Lightning was ready to give the massive idiot a piece of her mind. Instead a bumbling Neanderthal though she was faced with dark haired girl, no older than nineteen. She was about the size of Lightning but even more petit. The girl scrambled to her feet and stood in brisk attention.

"I'm so sorry ma'am. I was brining this box up to the range and I had to hold up higher so I could open the door and I just couldn't see you…" she blurted out in one massive breath.

Lightning just looked at the girl for a moment gritting her teeth. The box she was carrying was almost larger the she and the girl put together no wonder she was having trouble. "You didn't think to ask for help if you were having problems."

"I knew I should've but it was just a box and I was running late and I am required to be here…" the girl continued to give to a list of explanations. Lightning tried to interject a few times but the girl seemed way too flustered to stop. Eventually she just had enough.

"Shut up!" The girl went quiet. Lightning breathed a sigh of relief. She decided it was better to just dismiss her when she noticed the name tag on the girl's uniform, "Corp. J. Mars."

"What's your name?" Lightning asked.

"Jaclyn Mars ma'am," the girl replied, still in rigid attention and avoiding looking her in the eye.

"Of course you are," Lightning lamented. She figured she couldn't just the person the normal, boring way, some accident had to happen.

"Corporal Jac Mars?" Lightning turned her head to see Ferd right behind her.

"Yes sir."

"Hey nice job," Ferd gave Lightning a soft pat on the shoulder. Lightning hardly appreciated the sarcasm but she just brushed it off. At least they had found her, even though it wasn't in the way they had expected. "At ease Corporal. I'm sure Lt. Farron here isn't angry over a dropped box."

No, Lightning wasn't angry about that, but she was getting agitated over the way he was pushing her buttons.

"I'm Lt. Commander Ferdinand Journeyman. Lt. Farron and I came here to talk to you," Ferd continued.

"Oh," the girl stuttered. Her eyes darted back and forth between Lightning and the Commander. Lightning thought she looked a bit too nervous. "I really need to get back to my job. I'm supposed to be helping with the firearm instruction sir."

"Oh, no worries. Carry on," Ferd said congenially.

The girl, Jac, then bent down to pick up the ammo box and Lightning gave her a hand at lifting it. "Thank you ma'am. I'm really sorry." I strutted toward the right of the firing line.

"So?" Ferd leaned his head forward once the Corporal was behind the barriers.

"What?" Lightning responded.

"Any thoughts?"

Lightning gave a perfunctory shrug. Her first impression wasn't exactly a home run. Nor did they have much time to interrogate her about her record. "I think she's a little young."

"Look who's talking. She's a corporal at twenty. You're a lieutenant at twenty-one."

"I'm qualified. Why are you interested in her?" Lightning asked.

"Same reason the Director was interested in you. Before Cocoon fell, SpecRec was drawing up a list of soldiers for candidacy. So they asked a few senior officers to go evaluate some of the potential applicants. I was one of them. They gave me three names, and she was one of them."

"Hm," Lightning mused out loud. She watched as the girl unpacked the ammunition on the side of the range. There wasn't anything in the manner the girl carried herself that suggested any particular skill. "I don't see why."

"Well we just got here. Don't be too quick to judge."

"There has to be more qualified...applicants than this girl," Lightning urged as she watched as the Corporal picked up a rifle and entered the range. "She runs errands all day."

"That doesn't necessarily mean she's not good in the field," Ferd countered. A buzzer went off suddenly. The group leaders gave out orders and the cadets put down their rifles and began to file out of the range. The girl stayed though with an M-3 WASP type in her hands.

Lightning looked at her commander. "There are plenty of good troopers that made it through the fall."

"True, but those troopers are needed where they are. The GC and PsiCom need experience more than anything. That means we need to find some _untapped _talent."

Lightning understood the point, but it was hard to see what exactly was "untapped" about this girl. "Do you have any of her service records?"

"No those were all destroyed."

"Have you _seen _her service records?"

"No I can't say that I have," Ferd responded, still showing little uncertainty.

Lightning felt like she was getting nowhere. She found herself coming back to the same question she had just asked him. "Then how..."

Another buzzer went off, and Lightning turned her head to find the cadets piling up outside the transparent barrier that separated her and Ferd from the firing line. Looking ahead of them she saw the girl mount the assault rifle to her shoulder. She stood still for a moment, aiming at some mental target in the air. A second later a clay pigeon fired from left. The girl swept immediately to its position and shot it out of the air. Another fired less than a second later and again she shot it down. They another, and another, and each time the frequency increased slightly until, as Lightning guessed, they were firing four per second. Another buzzer rang as the launchers ran out of pigeons and the girl lowered her rifle. There was applause from the cadets and even the instructors behind the barrier. The girl took off her ear projection and gave them thumbs up as she exited the range.

Lightning, even with her slightly hurt pride, was a little wide-eyed. She kept of the girl's firing record. It was perfect; fifty out of fifty. If she had had a better day she might have been willing to even say the girl was as good as she was. Maybe...

"Does that answer your question?" Ferd asked her.

"You knew," she accused him.

"I didn't."

"Right."

"Call it a hunch. I generally have good instincts. The only concrete thing that I found out about her was that she had done very well in weapons training. That's it," Ferd explained.

"You could have told me that," she retorted.

"I did, just not in so many words," Ferd defended himself.

Lightning took the point. Even her limited experience with the Commander showed he had good intuition. Still, she liked to have all the information available.

The girl by then had put down her rifle and was passing through the barriers as the cadets filed out of the range. She still had the eye protection on. She walked directly up to the Commander and stood at attention.

"I'm done with my duties. What can I do for you Commander?" she asked.

"I'd say it's the other way around Corporal," Ferd answered.

"Sir?"

"How do you like your job here?"

"Well...it's okay I guess. I mostly just administer the range when training groups come in. Otherwise it's kinda boring," she answered. "If I might ask sir, why are you here anyway?"

"The Lieutenant and I are forming a new unit. It's a small, elite task force that reports directly to the Duke," Ferd said. As he finished that sentence the girl's face began to become flushed. Lightning thought she could even see her lips twitching. "So far at least, it's only Lightning and myself. We're in need of some good shots, so would you be interested?"

The girl's face was almost florescent by that point. Her mouth hung open for a moment then closed. She smiled awkwardly and finally managed to get something out. "Uh yeah!...yes sir, I would." Lightning still got the sense that something else was going in the girl's mind.

"Okay," Ferd said. "I guess that means we're done here."

"I have a few questions," Lightning spoke up.

"Oh I'm sorry," Ferd responded with a raised eyebrow. "Go ahead."

"Corporal, what's the target rate on those launchers?" Lightning nodded to the firing range.

"Uh, the max rate is ten Hertz I think. We never put it up that high though," the girls answered.

Lightning nodded. Ten Hertz was about what she expected. Maybe it was because of her ego, or because Ferd had dragged her out there, but she felt oddly competitive at that moment. That and she wanted to see just how fast the girl actually was. "Have you ever played the 'mad grab' game?" she asked the girl.

"Once, awhile ago."

Good. Lightning wouldn't have to bother explaining it her. "What do you say to game?"

The girl was taken a little off guard by the suggestion. "Uh sure."

Lightning looked to Ferd then. "Fine by me."

"Okay. If you would just follow me Lieutenant," the Corporal requested.

The game was something Lightning had played when she was still a cadet training for the GC. It was pretty simple: for then seconds you launched a bunch of clay pigeons into the air and two shooters competed to 'grab' as many as possible. Simple, but at ten Hertz and two launchers that meant there was twenty put into the air every second, two hundred in the whole ten seconds. That alone was enough to get most range masters really pissed off, and not to mention ten Hertz was often to fry some launching systems. So she her peers always had to play it discretely. That usually was the hard part.

A few of the other range workers stepped up to help, so it only took a minute to get the launchers and the counter set up. The girl took lighting to the storage 'shed' that was adjacent to the range and pulled out two of the higher quality M-5's and some eye and ear protection for Lightning.

"So when did you join he unit?" the girl asked her.

"A few days ago," Lightning replied while loading a full clip.

"Really? Cool. I don't mean to brag Lieutenant but I'm really good at this." The timid tone of voice the girl had was gone, replaced by one that was much more confident and even a little condescending.

"I know," Lightning said, loading a round into the gun's chamber.

"I'm not going to hold back."

"Good," Lightning put the gun to her shoulder, aiming barrel in the air. "That would make it too easy."

Lightning held the gun in one hand as she put on her eye and ear protection, then led the way to the firing line. Ferd stayed behind the barrier as they both took up position. Lightning got as comfortable as she could with her weapon. It had been awhile since she had used a typical assault rifle. Maybe it was because she didn't have the largest shoulders, but the typical M-series made her feel she was holding a bazooka. The Corporal though was about the same size though and she didn't seem to have problem, so neither would she. She still would have preferred her gunblade though.

A minute later the buzzer rang, and then both the Corporal and Lightning took aim. Lightning forced herself to take deep breaths. She had played the game several times, but each time the specter of competition was enough to get her blood racing. She focused on the sound of the launchers warming up, listening carefully the pitch rose. "One," she whispered, "two...three."

She saw the first target fly out from left field and turned her sights toward, but the time she did though five more were in the air following. She heard the Corporal take her first shot just before she took hers. But that time the there was of targets in the sky, all of them slowly spinning back toward the deck of that docking bay. This was when the 'mad' came in. Both of the girls became trigger crazy, firing and pivoting and pivoting as fast as possible, not evening bothering to confirm a hit or a miss. Before long there was so much debris in the air that it became hard to identify another target, but nonetheless both continued firing. Lightning gritted her teeth as her right index finger began to strain. The trigger she was using had a lot more resistance than her blazefire. But that didn't matter. That game ending buzzer range a second later, and before either of the feminine rambos knew it, they had both mopped up all the targets.

Lightning immediately put down her weapon. She shook out her right hand and began to unload the M-5, per usual firing range procedure. She could feel the girl looking at her. Lightning knew she was probably thinking "doesn't she want to know the score?"

She heard Ferd ask from behind the barrier. "What was the count?" he asked the range attendant.

"Looks like fifty one for the Lieutenant...and fifty two for Mars," the attendant said.

"Woah!" the girl said breathless, looking at Lightning who was walking past out of the range.

"Good job," Lightning gave her respectful congratulations.

"Thanks but," she walked after Lightning, "you did really good too Lieutenant."

"You won," Lightning responded.

"Yeah, but I do this everyday."

"It shows," Lightning complemented. Lightning took off her eye and ear protection giving them to one of the attendants as she walked by.

"Hey wait, what was your name again?" the girl asked.

"Lightning," it was Ferd who had just entered the range area. "That was pretty hot, if you don't mind my saying so." He had that same smile on his face.

"The Corporal won," was all she said in response to that.

"It was good competition though Commander," the girl added.

"I'll say," Ferd agreed. "Well I think we're done. If Lt. Farron concurs..." Ferd looked Lightning in the eye, and she nodded. "I'd like to formally extend an invitation to join the Autonomous Special Operations Division. What do you say?"

"Absolutely sir," Corporal Jac Mars saluted. "After shooting like that, I can't wait."

"Good to hear," then made his way to leave. "We'll be in touch," he said and exited the range.

Lightning gave the Corporal a polite nod before turning to follow him. "Was that entirely necessary?" he asked as she caught up to him.

"I wanted to see how good she was," she replied.

"Okay, but to me it looked like you wanted to see who was better."

Lightning allowed herself a small smile.

"Still," Ferd continued. "That was pretty good."

"I'm not used M-5's. Would've done better if they had the smaller X-series."

"Am I wrong, because I think you were actually impressed back there?"

Lightning fought back another smile. "Everyone makes mistakes."

"Ha!" Ferd laughed, as they walked into the lift.

The two exited the converted carrier a few minutes. Lighting followed Ferd, getting an odd sense of déjà vu as they walked into the LZ, out toward the rest of the settlement. They past a group of Crusaders being unloaded from the PSICOM ship that had just landed, making Lightning feel like she was back Palumpolem with Hope, when they infiltrated the city.

"So there's three of us now," spoke after a few minutes of quiet. "That's an improvement."

"Yes there is," Ferd concurred. "Three's good but four is better. Don't you think?"

"I'd prefer more. Let's guess you already have someone else in mind you haven't told me about?" Lightning accused him.

"Yes, but..." Ferd began.

"But what?"

"Well I'm not exactly sure about this one."

"And you were sure about that girl?" Lightning questioned.

"What mean is that this guy, however talented he is, might be trouble."

Lightning almost wanted to say, "he couldn't be more trouble than you," but decided it was better not to. It did make her wondered though, what was enough trouble to make Ferd pause? "What kind of trouble?" she asked.

"Oh you'll see. The trouble isn't really him, but the 'baggage' he comes with." Lightning interest was piqued by that. What sort of baggage? What did he do? Ferd continued.

"Here." Ferd pointed to his velocycle which was parked on the far side of the LZ. "We're going to have to fly. I'll explain once we get into the air, okay?"

"Sure," Lightning responded, and boarded the velocycle.

A moment later they were in the air. The airspace was so crowded though that it forced Ferd to fly a lot closer to a few GC personnel carriers than he should have. And by close, he nearly crashed in their respective hulls. Lightning by then was getting used to his flying style. "So who is this guy?" she asked after a few minutes.

"His name's Zen. His used to be in recon platoon," Ferd answered.

"SpecRec?"

"Actually PsiCom," Ferd clarified.

"PsiCom?" That shocked her.

"Yes PsiCom," Ferd repeated. "Is that a problem."

Lightning might have screamed 'yes' if she had less self control, but she soon got a hold of herself. "I've had some bad experiences with PsiCom." That was the understatement of the century.

"You and me both. But they did at least have a very good expeditionary core," Ferd weighed in.

"Aren't we supposed to recruit only from our people?"

"We can recruit from whoever and wherever we'd like. But you're right, I wouldn't normally consider a PsiCom soldier. But this guy is something unique."

"Is that his 'baggage?'" Lightning asked with a bit of sass.

Ferd laughed. "Let me tell you what happened. So several months ago PsiCom gets some intelligence that there is some 'suspicious activity' out in a small city near the Hanging Edge. Everything was bit vague, so they send a recon platoon to verify. This is the official report keep in mind. Anyway something happens, and the platoon commander along with several other soldiers and civilians end up dead in some explosion. PsiCom then pours everything they have into the area and finds this guy had fled the scene soon after. PsiCom immediately puts out a hit. With an entire PsiCom division after him this guys makes it all the way from the Hanging Edge, on foot, through the Vile Peaks, through Grapa Woodland, almost halfway to Bodhum in fact before he was finally caught by Guardian Corps special forces."

Lightning had to fight back a laugh at the irony. That was practically the same thing she and Hope had done when they were fleeing the Purge. She would guess it had to be related. What else would get the old PsiCom in a rut besides Pulse activity? Even so that was pretty good, for a PsiCom guy.

"So where is he now?" she asked.

"Well we decided it was better, for his sake, to keep him in our custody while the incident was investigated. At first PsiCom was pissed, but then the Purge happened," Ferd explained.

"And the Erudite Gorg accident," Lightning added. She was of course very familiar with the events that lead up to the Purge.

"That's right. So to continue, when the end of Cocoon came he was just evacuated with GC personnel. I would guess PsiCom just counts him as missing and that's it."

"You don't think they'll make a fuss?"

"With all the troubles Colonel Beta is having, no. Definitely not. So Zen, is just in limbo right now, no one knows what to do with him, and no one wants to deal with him," Ferd spoke with slightly depressed tone.

"So you're going to deal with him. How noble," she mocked. "You don't think that maybe he was responsible for the accident.

"No. Do you want to know what I think?"

"Please," Lightning replied.

"I believe the kid was ordered to blow up a target that was very close to some civilians. The kid didn't want to go along with it, so he tried to stop it. What I suspect was a rocket launcher then went off, killing the platoon commander and others. He knew that he would be blamed so he fled."

"How honorable," Lightning commented.

"Maybe not. But if anything this guy has tenacity. And that's a soldier's most useful asset."

She could agree to that, but that didn't really convince her. Every PsiCom guy she had come to know had a bigger ego than their skull could handle, and she bet that this guy was exactly the same.

"There it is." Ferd pointed to small facility on the ground. By then they were far into the outskirts of the settlement. Ferd angled his velocycle for a clear spot of ground next to the front door and landed.

To Lightning the place looked more like her squad barracks back in Bodhum than a detention area, and it was a bit surreal to see it out on the steppes of Gran Pulse. Ferd stepped out a moment later and walked toward the door.

"Who caught him?" she asked.

"What?"

They were almost at the door. "You said that GC Special Forces caught him. Who was it?"

"Oh..." he stepped through the door. "I did."

Lightning couldn't hold back that laugh as she followed him into the structure.

The building was bland on the outside, and even more so on the inside. The walls were pale concrete brick, painted with the same color. There were several staircases, each with navy blue steel railings, scattered throughout. It made Lightning feel as though she was inside of a bunker. They were several meters in before they came across one of the stationed officers who directed them toward the detention area. The officer then disappeared into some corridor.

"What is this place?" Lightning asked after a few minutes.

"It's one of the main radar stations and a communication. It generates a lot of radiation, that's why the walls are so thick."

"Doesn't really seem likes a good to keep a prisoner."

"Well he was the first one we had. And there wasn't any better place to do," Ferd said. They came to a "fork" in the hallway, which stopped Ferd on his tracks. "Okay, that guy didn't say anything about this."

Lightning grinned. "Lost?"

"Look I like to have a sky over my head. I'm not a tunnel dweller," Ferd explained, trying his best to keep his dignity.

Lightning stepped ahead and looked down both of the corridors. "This way," she pointed down one.

"You sure?"

"He said that it was this level. The other one leads up," she reasoned, walking on ahead.

"Oh right."

They walked around a corner and spied two MP's standing guard by a deep blue door. Must be the place.

Lightning walked up, with Ferd close behind, and flashed her new badge to the guards. " Lt. Farron and Commander Journeyman here to see the detainee."

The MP's looked completely bewildered at the badge. Obviously they had no idea who Ferd and Lightning were, or even what there unit was. The two looked at each other unsure of what to do. "Are you guys here about the appeal?"

Lightning was about to explain who they were, but Ferd simply said "yes" before she could the chance. "Uh okay. It'll just take a minute." The same MP said and fished a key card out of his pocket. The door opened and Lightning was the first to walk through it.

The room was a lot brighter than the corridor in terms of both lighting and the wall color. Other than that the room was utterly plain. There was a portable table on the side that had water and some old food. There was a partially closed door that lead to a small bathroom, and muted television set that showed just static since there wasn't anything being broadcasted. The detainee, Zen, was laying on the small couch, with magazine in his hands that was months old, obviously from before Cocoon had been destroyed. More were scattered over small coffee table next to the small sofa. He looked at Lightning as though she had two heads. "You're not at all like I thought a JAG officer would look like."

Lightning just folded her arms and stared back. It occurred to Lightning as he was looking at her, that he probably hadn't seen a girl the whole he had been there. He probably hadn't left the room at all either. Lightning didn't want to think about how he kept himself occupied.

"What the hell though," Zen said after a moment. "I submitted almost a month ago. I understand I'm technically in the ranks but what the fuck? You guys can't just leave me to rot. I..." He stopped talking and gazed intently past Lightning. Ferd had just walked into the room. "oh shit."

"Good afternoon, Specialist. I see you've met the Lieutenant."

"Lieutenant, oy..." He put his head between his legs. "Whatever you're here for, it's worthless to you now."

"Why do you think we're here?" Ferd asked.

"...I don't know. You're just the guy who threw me off a cliff then tied me a velocycle, which is why I'm here, locked in this room right now."

"Well, that was awhile ago. Don't worry though. I forgive you." Zen put waved his hands in the air. "Actually Specialist we're here to get you out."

"Really? Well that's just...peachy." He put his head back between his knees. He had such mockery in his tone it was starting to get on Lightning's nerves. "They said SpecRec were supposed to be a tier above everyone else. You're just as Machiavellian as the rest. So what do you want?"

"Just to talk," Ferd stated.

"Oh that's nice. You know what I want? I want to be able to walk more than 3 meters before I hit a wall." Lightning clenched her fist into a ball. He talked, still sitting on the couch, like he was entitled to be an ass to them. Ferd just looked placid though, so sign of anger on his face. "It would also be nice to, you know, see the light of day." He continued to list things as though he was saying something clever.

Lightning decided it was time to step in. She walked casually over to the Specialist, who was still too busy talking to notice what she was doing, and grabbed hold of his right arm, flipping him over her back up against the wall. That shut him up. He looked at Lightning even more shocked than he did when she first walked in.

"Two things," she began. "Get up and shut up. We're not going to help you if you continue to blow hot air at us. Unless you want to stay in here for another two months," she made sure the threat sounded real.

The Specialist, still looking her in the eye, just nodded slowly. "Alright... Lieutenant."

Lightning let him go and backed up behind Ferd. The Specialist took himself off the wall eyeing her carefully.

"Okay," Ferd said. "Now since that's cleared up, Zen why don't you tell us something, do you miss your job?"

"You're seriously asking me that?" Lightning made a light motion toward and the Specialist immediately backed off. "Miss my job, compared to what work I've been doing it wasn't that bad. Say whatever you want about PsiCom, it was a nice gig."

"So why are you here?" Ferd asked.

"I think you know why."

"I'd like you tell the Lieutenant," Ferd responded, motioning with his head to Lightning.

The Specialist gave out a deep sigh. "It wasn't my fault. The target somehow got stuck in an abandoned gas line. I told the operator not to fire but he did. I didn't even do anything. Yet they take a survivor of a fiasco to be the cause. Command arrived and they put me under arrest. I wasn't about to 'accidently' fall from a few thousand feet. So...whatever."

Ferd looked at Lightning with raised eyebrow. "See?" Lightning could tell he was asking if she approved of the guy. She didn't like much to be sure. He had a bad attitude. But if what Ferd said was right, that he willing disobeyed an order and escaped, he had some considerable skill. So she just shrugged.

The Specialist's eyes dotted between here and Ferd. "What? Please, I really just a straight answer."

"Well you see Specialist there's a bit of an issue. You're not regular in Guardian Corps. So I don't have any legal standing to give you and orders. Sorry," Ferd said sadly.

"Excuse me?" Zen asked.

"Isn't it too bad Lieutenant?"

"You said you were here to get me out?"

Lightning didn't even need the prompt, she knew what he was trying to do. "Yeah it is. If he were a member of our division he could leave whenever he wanted."

"But you're not Specialist, so that's it," Ferd continued.

Zen took a step forward then. "Are you offering me a job?"

"Do you want a job?" Ferd said.

"I want to go outside."

"Then I can't help you. Let's go Lightning." He made to walk out the door. Lightning followed him. They made it three steps before he spoke up.

"Alright," Zen groaned.

"Pardon me?" Ferd asked.

"Uh...I'll take the job. I'll the join your unit. I'll be a nice little GC member."

"Good to hear. Welcome." Ferd walked over and gave him a firm handshake. "Now for introductions. Lt. Commander Ferdinand Journeyman. Lt. Lightning Farron, Specialist K. Zen."

Lightning just nodded. Zen didn't look at all impressed either. He gave one depressed stare to Lightning and then to Ferd. "Lightning and Ferdinand, why do I have the feeling that both of you are going to be riding my ass?"

"Only when it's sticking out too far," Ferd answered. Lighting had hard time fighting back a smile.

They ended up spending the better part of two hours in that facility. Ferd tracked down the officer in charge of Zen and made the arrangements for him to be released the following morning. The MP officer was more than a bit resistant, but the threat of a call to the director finally moved him along in the end. It was already nearly twilight when they finally stepped outside. Even though she hadn't really done much, Lightning still felt exhausted. All she had done was wait around too. Like before, Ferd showed little change in demeanor, and Lightning for a split second was finding herself envious of his endurance. Only for a second though.

"That went well I think."

"You had to threaten the MP commander," she reminded him.

"Yeah but it worked. Doesn't always," Ferd added.

"What would you have done if it didn't?"

"Something unpleasant probably. Let's just say it's much better for everyone that it worked out this way," Ferd replied.

It definitely seemed to Lightning that he would have broken Zen out of there if the officer didn't give his consent. "You don't take 'no' very well do you?"

"I do, but I'm often right and no one should be shy about that," Ferd parried.

Lightning rolled her eyes. "Sure." They walked toward the velocycle. "So is this it? Four?"

"You mean to ask 'will we be able to handle it with this many?' Four is actually typical of most PsiCom squads, and SpecRec. What we don't have is support personnel, but that's easier to take care of."

"And I guess you'll handle it right?" Lightning asked rethorically.

"Oh course," Ferd confirmed. Lightning made and audible sigh. "You're still anxious aren't you?"

"I'm impatient" she explained. She was mostly just tired from the day.

"Are you ever not impatient? I keep telling you to relax, but somehow I get the feeling you're never..." Lightning waited for the rest of the sentence, and even thinking of something witty to counter, but it didn't come.

She looked at Ferd and found he had turned his head, staring off into the east. Lightning looked too, but found nothing by empty sky with the lights of another settlement far off in the distance on the Plateau. "What?" she asked him guessing something was wrong.

Ferd turned back to here. "Oh...nothing. Just some nice twilight."

Lightning might've pressed him, but by then she knew Ferd was just being Ferd. "Right."

"Anyway. I was going to give you a critique," Ferd continued. "But I guess I'll just give you a lift home."

"It'd be nice. You dragged me out here," she commented.

"Sometimes Light, you seemed to forget that I outrank you," Ferd said as he got into the velocycle.

Lightning decided to flip herself herself over the top from the pilots side, landing right in passenger seat. "If I do Commander, it's because you don't act like it."

"Ha," Ferd laughed sarcastically as the engines of the Falco velocycle warmed up and they took off.

Lightning thought it might take longer for the velocycle to reach Settlement B than the airship that she rode in on, but the time ended up be comparable. It was already dark by the time they arrived and the settle for most part was pretty quiet. At least it did from the air. The weather was clear too, but Lightning still found it a little strange to have to think about that.

A controller tried to hail them as they entered to the cities airspace, but Ferd just ignored it. He angled their trajectory toward Lightning's unit and landed right on the road that was there. Usually there would have been some startled pedestrians in the area, but that time of night that area was very much asleep.

Lightning jumped off the velocycle, looking around. It looked a different in the dark, much more alien, despite all the time she had been on Pulse. She was almost home, but it still didn't quite feel like home. Not yet.

Ferd stepped out behind her. "So what happens after this?" she asked.

"Well I'll find us a workplace. And then you can figure out where you want to live," Ferd replied.

"I already have a place to stay," Lightning replied automatically.

"I mean in one of those." Ferd nodded toward the massive Civic Center and sprawling apparent complexes under construction. "They're almost complete in all the settlements. When they're done you just let me where, I'll get you one of the first ones."

"How do you have so much pull?"

"I told you there are privileges to being a Commander. Especially when you're working for the guy in charge."

"Right. Just let me know when we actually have some orders," Lightning said, and began walking back to her unit.

"You know I could drop you off closer." Ferd called after her.

"I can walk," was all she replied.

"Just trying to be nice," he got back into the velocycle and powered up its engines. "Say hi to Hope for me."

Lightning turned to watch as the velocycle hovered over the ground and then vectored up toward the dark sky. She once it was out of sight she breathed a sigh of relief that the day was finally over. "Yeah sure." She turned back around and resumed the walk home.

Oddly enough she didn't feel as exhausted as she did when they got out of the relay facility. In fact if it wasn't late she might be up for a workout, since all she had really done all the day was sleep in, have lunch with Serah, and walk around. Plus she hadn't done much of anything the last few days.

She arrived at her aisle, and decided instead to take a short patrol around the area. She used to often have duties back in Bodhum, and those duties where often to patrol the perimeter or stand sentry. On patrol they were usually in pairs, but on sentry she was usually alone. Walking around the quiet homesteads reminded Lightning of her first days in the Security Regiment, the mostly empty streets and the bright stars overhead. Of course back in Bodhum those weren't stars by lights from the cities on the other side of Cocoon's shell. Looking up at the Pulsian stars she knew those couldn't be cities. In fact Lightning didn't really know what they were, except that they were probably very far away. Did the fal'Cie create them or was it the nameless maker that created Pulse?

It seemed pitiful to her that they knew so little about the world they no living on. And the only two that could them were gone, and not likely to return any time soon. Lightning looked toward the direction of Cocoon in the darkness. She thought maybe she might be seeing a faint outline but nothing more. She wondered how much Fang and Vanille had known and weren't able to tell them. Cocoon was small and unified, but Pulse was massive and dispersed. She might live there a hundred years and not know much than she did at that moment. Definitely not an invigorating thought.

Lightning continued to look up into the sky seeing the all the shapes the stars formed and wondering if there was any pattern. She saw one star then that was moving relative to the others. It was pretty bright, so it was easy to track. She stopped walking so she didn't walk into wall, fence, or something else embarrassing. The star just seemed to cruise constantly toward the zenith directly over her head. She had never really been interested in science that much but it was kind of cool to see something like that. All of a sudden the star change direction and began to move faster, much faster. As it accelerated it became brighter. Lightning's passing fascination turned to fixed attention. Eventually the star fell toward the east like a meteor, and then it was no longer visible.

Lightning found herself leaning toward the direction it fell. "What was that?" She said aloud, comfortable that no one else was around to hear her talk to herself. She was sort of sad that no one she knew was out to see it. "Huh." She surveyed the sky briefly, just in case there was something else interesting to watch. When satisfied that only normal stars were out she kept walking her circuit.

Right ahead of her though, she saw someone. They were walking toward the units sort of hunched over, almost like he was hurt. Lightning walked quickly over to see if he needed help. But as she got closer, it became clear that this person more help than she could give. As it passed in front of a light she saw the outline, the rough corroded edges of its, the malformed long dangling arms that almost dragged across the ground; the horrifying image of a Cie'th. Lightning gripped her gunblade, drawing it out of its sheath. There was more than one two. Lightning looked down the road and could see at least half a dozen silently making their way toward the housing units.

Lightning heard some dragging foot steps behind. "Shit." She turned to see another five of so almost on top of her. She cursed herself for letting her guard down to stargaze. It was too late to run and try to raise an alarm, she was basically surrounded. She brought out the blade and readied herself.

The leading Cie'th began to sprint at her, bringing up one of its arms to strike. She ducked out of the way and slashed upward into its abdominen and down on its back, before kicking it down. By then two others were on her. She quickly slashed one across its 'face,' causing it to wail, before quickly bringing up her blade to catch another's arm. She tripped it and slashed across its back before jumping away to get some distance. The other was hacking at her. It charged and she stepped out of the way before driving the tip of her sword through its neck, finishing it. Two more were charging at her. This time she ran to meet them, flipping over as she cut one across the shoulder and then landed to strike the other. She checked her back for another ambush, but she was safe.

She looked then down the road to first few and saw. What was about six was then more like twenty six. Some of them had taken notice of her while most of the others advanced on the housing units. Lightning panicked about what to do. There was no way she would be able to knock them down one by one before some made it toward the civilians. But if she ran for back up all she would be in the same situation. The eureka moment was when she realized she didn't need to go anywhere to call of help. She reached into her pack and groped hastily, constantly looking up at the Cie'th. She found it and pulled it out calling the only number that was programmed into the quick-dial. "Commander!"

"I can see you. Don't move!" She looked into airspace and saw the lights of a velocycle preying down upon the Cie'th. The twin vulcan guns open firing then, blanketing the ground with bullets. In seconds all thirty or so of the Cie'th were down. It passed over her then vectored back. It landed only few seconds latter and Ferd jumped out, sonic sword in hand. "You alright?"

"Yeah," Lightning confirmed. "How did you know?"

"I found a barrier on the edge of the settlement completely smashed. There was a failure apparently in the power system. When they broke through then, none of the alarms were triggered."

"Figures something like that," Lightning commented.

"What can you do? The stationed squads are on their way. They can take care of anymore that are inbound. What I'm worried about is that some of them might have already made into housing district."

"I'll sweep the area," Lightning immediately said.

"You know I can help with that?"

"I can handle Cie'th on my own," Lightning explained. "Believe me."

"Okay how about this, I'll one side you take the other. And twenty gil to the one that finishes first and gets the most Cie'th."

Lightning looked down toward the housing district. That particular one was only a square kilometer. "Fifty gil, and you're on."

Ferd smiled. "You know, I knew I would like you Lightning." And with that word Ferd sprinted toward one side of the district and Lightning did toward the other side.

She switched to her gun as she ran. The first aisle was clean so she moved on to the next. Clean. The by the third she was beginning to get a little winded, but she wasn't about to slow down. Halfway down she found two that were almost mournfully walking through the houses. There was some sympathy in her for the people the Cie'th once were, since she herself had almost gone down that road. But it was too dangerous for her to let them roam. She ran up behind them and quickly dispatched them. She kept running. The next was clean, so was the one after that. Running down the next she realized that it was her aisle, that her unit wasn't far from where the Cie'th were coming. She didn't feel worried about Hope though. She knew he wouldn't try to fight a group of them on his own.

As fate would have it, as she ran by it, he stepped outside, looking at the security vehicles which were beginning to arrive over the settlement. He saw her as she ran passed. "Lightning!"

"Stay inside Hope!"

"What's going on?"

"Just stay inside and lock the door!" She didn't have time to give a full explanation. She kept running up the aisle and found another few Cie'th, these ones had cornered a young couple. Fired a couple shots into the nearest one dropping it, and killed other up close.

"Are you alright?" she asked, out of breath. The boy, shaking, nodded, while the girl was too petrified to say anything. She pointed with a trembling arm at something behind Lightning. Switched back to gun and turned. It was another Cie'th, but not the garden variety, it was at least three meters tall, with a bulk of about probably ten of its compatriots. Lightning wondered for a moment how the thing could sneak anywhere. It was easily big enough to kill her in single strike, but she hardly move with the civilians behind her. "Run," she said to them, and they didn't need to be told twice.

She fired a few shots, but the thing's hide was thick enough to stop them cold, and she didn't have any incendiary bullets to fall back. She brought out of her blade, and stood firm. It was not the first time she had face down something that size. She was a bit more powerful then though. She knew she could evade its strikes. All she needed was the chance to get in close to its head area. It towered over her raising its log like arms, and Lightning gripped her sword.

There was a high pitched screech and then a whip like crack in the air then, and then left side of the giant suddenly opened spewing out the strange blood. The Cie'th but then slowly sagged to ground, revealing Ferd. "Looks like I acted just in time. The second time in a row," he said.

Lightning gritted her teeth. "I had it covered," she protested. She wasn't going to admit that she owed him twice.

"Well I'm sorry then. I'll let you cut the next one in half," he remarked looking around. "Well I finished first but you definitely got the most Cie'th, the other units are clear. You win."

"I get the money later."

"That's good because I'm sort of broke. Commander's aren't actually paid very well."

Lightning wasn't listening to him. She looked down at the dead Cie'th, and the monsters that were once people, made into puppets by the fal'Cie. It was such a pity, that's what she thought. She wished that the power that saved her from her fate could be used on them. But the only two who could that were gone. The only left the Pulse fal'Cie, the ones responsible

"Something wrong?" Ferd asked.

She looked up. "Just wondering how no one noticed them get in here."

"It's a good question. Good thing you were here, or this could've evolved into a real disaster."

"Yeah," Lightning said in an undertone.

A few minutes later, the Settlement security squads arrived, and her quiet night turned into a mess of sirens and lights.


	5. A Little Piece of Home

So I got off classes in June and have been working 50 hour weeks ever since. The thing about getting older is that you just get busier and busier. Anyway, in lieu of FFXIII-2 coming out in January, I'm trying to get as much written as possible. It's not going well.

About this chapter, it was once the first half of a much longer chapter, but I thought it would be easier on you guys to chop it up: 8,000 words instead of 16,000. Yeah...

I'll put out the next half in a few weeks and get the ball rolling on the rest of this story.

As a side thought, I'm getting the feeling that Versus XIII is never going to be released.

-Stonehenge.

A Little Piece of Home

It was dark when Lightning got up that morning. Unlike the previous mornings, she actually felt rested and didn't have to drag herself out of bed to go to work. She looked at the faint room, dimly lit by only the LED light of her alarm clock. It felt a little bit surreal. To her it seemed ages ago that she woke up when it was still dark outside. She took it in for a moment, and then rolled herself to her feet and walked out of her room.

There was enough light from the outside lights for her to navigate through the living room without crashing into anything. She walked to the small refrigerator and pulled out a cooled water picture and poured herself a glass, looking at the neighboring housing units just before the dawn arrived. She hated not being able to sleep in, but for some reason she liked this time of day the best. It felt like the whole of Pulse was to herself, like she owned the world, or at least her house. In the early hours of the day the relentless march of time seemed to pause. She felt like she had all the time in the world to solve all the problems that were coming her way. Too bad it was only a feeling.

She hadn't been doing much the last week. Ferd disappeared after the Cie'th incident, up to…well whatever he does otherwise. He contacted her a few times giving her updates one this or that, usually logistic things. Whenever she tried to call him though, he would never answer. He was a typical guy. That was Lightning's conclusion. So she ended up spending yet more time hanging around the housing unit with Hope.

Lightning turned around and looked at her still very Spartan living space. It was finally starting to feel like home. The strangeness of living with Hope and the close quarters were finally starting to wash away. She turned back around and looked at the then new housing apartments in front of the massive Civic Center. It wouldn't be long before all the civilians would slowly be cleared out of the small units, and shuffled into the complexes. Her commander had mentioned that Lightning would get priority room assignment. When that happened, civilian transports between the Settlements would be operational, and there would be little reason for Hope to not move back in with his father. It was for the best. In fact Lightning knew that when it came down to it she would insist. That meant their little fraternity would be coming to an end. No matter the greater good, Lightning couldn't help but feel sad at that reality, and she knew that Hope felt the same.

She was not that wild about her new comrades either. Mars seemed like a fair soldier, but not much more than that. Zen had problems with authority, and was overall not the best team player. And Ferd—Lightning lacked the diction to describe her frustrations with his attitude. But he was highly skilled. No doubt about that.

In the darkness looking to the sky and faint light of dawn slowly approaching, she caught herself feeling a little optimistic about the day. Maybe the weaknesses she was seeing in her new team would actually turn out to be strength? But she was careful not to raise her hopes too much.

She finished her water, washing the glass and putting it away just as it was before she awoke, like she was never there. She left the kitchen area then, returning to her room, undressed and walked to the shower. She had plenty of time, and she was going to enjoy it. She was still bruised and scratched from her recent excursions, and the hot water felt like a bit of heaven. She just had to be careful to not fall back asleep while standing. She had done that a few times. That morning though she was unusually awake, full of thoughts of the future and of the previous day.

Two days earlier her phone rang. Thinking that it was her new CO she answered it immediately, she found herself very confused.

"Lightning?" he had asked?

"Snow…"

"You sound surprised."

Her mouth hung open for a moment as she tried to form a question. "I wanted to ask you for a favor," he said before she could get it out.

"Uh, what's up?"

"Well you know that they just completed all the apartments right? I'm gonna go look at a few tomorrow…and I was wondering if you could come with?" he asked in a much nicer tone than she had ever heard from him. For a moment Lightning thought he had to be joking with her. She liked him well enough but, her go shopping with him? It was preposterous. More than preposterous. There had to be something else going on, she knew, but what? Why would she be his first choice? Of course she had to say no. She wasn't on duty but she was on call. She couldn't just go shopping for a place with less than a days notice.

But even with all these protestations buzzing in her mind Lightning still found herself replying, "Uh, okay."

"Great! I'll drop by early tomorrow morning. See ya then!" He hung up without any further conversation.

Lightning told herself, "It's not a big deal." She put down the phone and walked around the room a few times. "Easy, just going shopping…for a new place to live…for Serah." She came to a dead stop in the center of her small living room. She looked around at the sparse furniture, trying to judge how it was arranged, trying to guess what might look better, how she might change it if she could. It only took her a moment to come the realization that she didn't know anything. "Dammit." That word would echo through her brain the rest of the night.

Snow meant what he said by early. It was four thirty in the morning and Lightning had just opened her eyes when she heard the knock on her unit's door. She got up, her bare feet causing the floor to shake as she walked to the door. She calmed down when she noticed Hope fast asleep on the couch. "Hey," he greeted her when she opened the door. Lightning still wasn't quite awake and it took a moment for her to process. "I like the outfit," he said, referring to her sleepwear, "but you might want some shoes."

"It's four thirty. I don't think they're open for tours yet."

"That's the idea. If we sneak in now there will be no crowds. We'll have to place to ourselves," he replied.

Lightning just rolled her eyes. It was too early in the morning to argue with an idiot. She left the door open so he could come in. "Looks like Hope had a fun night," he remarked. Lightning said nothing, and five minutes later she was dressed in her new uniform, in the off chance that Ferd might call her off to something. Maybe she was hoping for that? "Let's go," she scolded Snow who had sat down.

Snow was right about one thing, there would be no crowds. Save for some dedicated persons doing an early workout or an occasional flyby of an airship from the LZ, the settlement was all but deserted in the dim light of the early morning. Back in Cocoon, Lightning would have found the stillness strange. Even a smaller city like Bodhum never seemed to sleep. Pulse seemed utterly quiet as they walked, often only hearing the sound of their own footsteps. Lightning found herself liking the quiet for once. Though, it would've been more meditative if Snow had not been with her.

"So," he began, breaking the silence. "I like the new threads. Better than the pajamas."

Lightning looked at him. "It's pretty much the same as my other one."

"Yeah but that one had gotten really torn up," he pointed out. "You really look like you did before. Like this whole thing never happened."

Lightning wasn't quite sure if he was giving her a compliment or a veiled criticism. "Thanks. You look the same too. As scruffy as ever."

"I always hated shaving." He rubbed his hand over his chin. "And yeah, it's been awhile since I've updated my wardrobe. It's hard to find stuff that fits my style."

"Really? I always thought you just wore whatever."

"I bet you did. Everyone has their own style. Mine's just a little bit unique."

"Right," Lightning said with a fair amount of sarcasm.

"You can't not give me a hard time, can you?" Snow moaned.

"No, I was agreeing with you. Your style is definitely _unique." _Lightning was able to enjoy a few minutes of quiet as Snow pouted for a few minutes.

"So how is it, getting back to work?" he asked after a moment.

How is it? That was a good question that she should be asking. "It's fine."

"Just fine?"

"It's a little weird. But it's not bad," she elaborated.

"I had a feeling. Your new commander seemed way-too-nice," Snow commented.

Lightning was taken aback. "Wait! You talked to him?"

"That's how I got your number. It was a little awkward. He knew exactly who I was as soon as I told him I knew you. Is that typical?"

"For him maybe," Lightning responded while rolling her eyes.

"I take it you don't like him that much?" Snow asked.

"I…" she stopped herself from saying something she didn't really mean. It was true she had a lot frustration to vent but…she had never seen a soldier remain calm when he was swallowed whole by a red monster. "He just takes getting used to."

They arrived at a cross street which marked the beginning of the new residential block. The civic center stood, monumental but still under construction, ahead of them. All around them were apartment complexes, a lot of them. And they were massive. Lightning guessed that the smaller were on average at least twenty stories. The bigger ones were about forty, or maybe even sixty. Lightning felt like she was back in Eden. The sight gave her a lot of nostalgia but also some dread. She got an ineffable, faraway feeling that history was repeating itself. Snow on the other hand had a wide, awe-struck smile on his face, and Lightning decided to keep the feeling to herself.

"Where to?" she asked him. "This is your party."

"I know. I'm just taking in the view." He took a deep breath and then clapped his hands together. "Okay. Follow me."

He led her almost half way around the circumference the Civic center before stopping next to one of the larger complexes. The Sun had just started to creep above the eastern mountains. They didn't have a lot of time before a lot of people started to show up to work. "How'd you choose this one?" she asked him.

"Just had a good feeling, that and I think Serah wants to be in one of the larger ones," he answered.

Lightning found that puzzling. Serah had never liked crowds when they were younger. Their home was definitely one of the smaller ones in the neighborhood. "Why?"

"More people to meet. I think living packed units has changed her. She likes having neighbors," Snow explained.

"Yeah." That sounded like Serah. Lightning doubted she would have been able to observe the same thing had she been living with her those past several months.

If Lightning hadn't known better she might have thought it was strange that Snow was leading her around the side of the building rather than to the front gate. Even though the rooms were probably void of anything valuable, all the buildings would still be under tight lockdown. That meant physically and magnetically locked doors, silent alarms that were probably motion activated, live video surveillance, and if they had the manpower and resources, a few patrols with trained beasts for quick responses. Simply breaking-in, without extensive planning would be dicey at best, even for the two of them, who weren't novices.

"How'd you find this?" she asked.

"Well pretty much every building has one unguarded entrance. Wasn't that hard actually to guess where this one was."

"Don't tell me this all you've been doing lately," Lightning lightly chastised.

"Okay, it's not the only thing I've been doing." They came to the base of the building and Snow jumped down onto steel platform. "I got into a few others too." Lightning gave that a pity laugh. "Hey it may not be fighting monsters, but it's worth the time, Miss Commando."

"I didn't mean it that way. I understand why, but…" Lightning chose her next words carefully, "what I don't get is why you wanted me here."

"You'll see. I actually need your help."

They arrived at the door. As she expected it was heavy maintenance door, large enough to fit boiler sized objects. Also as she expected there was a glowing interface on the hand side. Snow walked up and bent his head in to inspect it. "Well this wasn't here before."

Lightning leaned her around his shoulders to see. Instead of a standard lock, what was there was there was identity scanner, probably linked up to a remote database somewhere in CCA, or the GC, updated every few minutes with the permitted ID's. There wasn't any other interface, no other input but the scanner that extended barely a millimeter from the wall. Snow scratched his hated hair before turning back to her. "Not sure if I can crack this."

Lightning might have given up too if she hadn't been struck with realization. She reached into her satchel and pulled out her GC badge. She was suddenly proud of herself for preferring to be in uniform. "Good thing," she said as he pushed passed him.

"What?" Snow sputtered.

"I mean you're right. You do need my help," she met his eyes as he placed the badge against the wall and the door immediately slid open. Lightning walked through the door leaving a moderately surprised Snow scampering behind her.

The door led them into a basement level but didn't take them long to find a lift. Snow picked the floor, and they were on their way. "So, I guess that's a perk of the new job?"

"You could say that."

"Mind if I see it?"

Lightning hesitated for a moment, remembering her commander's warning not to lose it. It was Snow though. She slipped the badge out of her satchel and tossed it to him.

"Autonomous Special Operations Division, sounds important. What exactly do you guys do though?"

That was a good question, Lightning thought to herself. But for Snow she just repeated what Ferd had said, "Our standing orders are to neutralize any threat to the settlements."

"Okay…that kinda makes you sound like a PSICOM Execution force."

"We don't Purge civilians, or kill them. We're a small unit that works directly under the Director," Lightning explained. She just realized how redundant that sounded.

"Who's the Director?" Snow asked, tossing the badge back to her.

"Some old guy named Dukesson."

"Bernhard Dukesson?"

Lightning was surprised. "You've heard of him?"

"Yeah, you hadn't? Aside from Daisly he was pretty much in charge of everything. That was a long time ago though." Somewhere in the middle of the conversation Lightning realized that they had exited the lift. Hallway lights came on automatically as they passed by, but there was enough sunlight making its way into the building by then so that they didn't need them. "He's pretty old school. I thought he was dead."

Lightning felt a little sheepish. Yeah she knew that she never paid attention to that stuff, but still didn't like being caught with her ignorance showing. "Well he's basically in charge of everything," Lightning added.

"So he's the head honcho and you report directly to him and you even get the keys to the city. Must mean that they think a lot of you."

"Sort of…" Lightning found herself looking into a bright light. Shielding her eyes she realized that she was looking at the top Civic Center and the sunlight reflecting off its polished structure. Drawn towards it, she found the beginning of a long window that stretched down the side of the hallway. It was quite a view. All around her she could see the tree like branches of the complexes as they wrapped around the Civic Center. If she had felt like she was is old Eden on the ground, it was times ten up there. A second later snow was at her side.

"Pretty cool huh?"

"What floor are we on?" she asked still looking.

"Forty, I pretty sure this thing goes up to fifty. So we're near the top," he answered.

"I can see why you want one of these," Lightning commented, looking straight down at the road bellow. She felt Snow tap her on shoulder.

"C'mon let's get looking."

There wasn't a whole lot of difference between the rooms, as Lightning had suspected. All of them were unfurnished, smelled of paint and bleach, and had a mirrored layout of the room adjacent. Variations included one or two bedrooms and baths, eastern or western facing windows, some had balconies, some were single story while others were double story, some of the floors featured suites, and still more some mix of all the above. Some of the floors they visited boasted large community, e.g. one had a small but nonetheless pleasant botanical garden. Lightning looked at them all with more or less approval. She would be fine with any of them, each unit had the essentials with some added feature. Snow on the other had seemed to be looking for something that wasn't tangible.

"I don't think this is the right building," he commented as they exited a three bedroom version.

"I thought you had a good feeling," Lightning reminded him.

"Signal mix up. How 'bout we try that one."

Much of the next hour consisted of the same hopping. With her badge they had no problem entering any site, even those that were still under some work. For Lightning it was having her expectations confirmed again and again. Snow kept at it though, pestering her for opinions and she kept giving him the same ones back. On maybe the fifth building Lightning was getting a little worn, and it was not even seven in the morning.

"Have you seen enough yet?" she asked, it wasn't the first time she had either.

"Almost," he answered. They were outside along the street, and he was looking up at his next target. "This has to be the one."

"Unlike the other ones."

"Just trust me alright. It's just hard to judge these things unless you're in the building you know," Snow defended himself. Lightning didn't believe him. Many CCA personnel others we're already in the area going to work. It wouldn't be long before the two of them began to look very conspicuous.

The building was like all the others. They ignored the lowest floors, spent a modicum of time on the middle, before heading straight to the top. Lightning was already on autopilot, action, reaction, impulse. She had lost her interest somewhere in the third complex around the thirty-first floor.

"Yeah this is it."

It took her a moment to realize that Snow had said something. "Huh?"

"The Sun's about to rise too."

She looked around. They had to have been on the top floor, though the building itself was on the shorter side compared to the others. There didn't seem anything special about it though. "What are you talking about?"

"You see?" They had come to window and he pointed out to horizon to where the dawn was peeking over the mountains that surrounded the plateau. Lightning found herself suddenly thinking about home, not her unit with Hope or Cocoon but…

"This is what I needed your help with. C'mon!"

Lightning felt a sharp tap on her shoulder. "What?" She turned to find Snow already at the other end of the hall, practically galloping. "Hey!" She went after him, but by the time she had gotten there he had already disappeared into one of the rooms.

"Damn." She broke her run, scanning the doors as she passed for clues. She faintly heard a voice of someone inside, and without thinking practically broke the door down. "What's the bid idea…" she started out strong but her voice faltered, because who she was looking at was not Snow.

There were two of them, both bent over a portable table, looking over some tablet, both wearing civilians' clothes. Once her wits returned after the initial surprise it was easy to see they were both from the CCA. She straightened her posture, nervously tossing a strand of pink hair behind her ear, trying look more like she was supposed to be there. "Excuse me."

The one closest to her looked her uniform up and down before he said anything. "Can we help you Lieutenant?"

Lightning parried the question. "Uh…I'm just here on…" her eyes darted from the wall, to the window and back again, "recon. I just needed to get a better bearing on…on the developments. For security purposes." It was choppy, broken and so vague she could image the scene of them laughing uncontrollably at her. She immediately started thinking of backup ideas. She could just run. They would be hard pressed to keep up with her. But what about Snow? She didn't know where he was, and if he was caught alone it would be bad, for him and for Serah.

She had to escort him out. She could pretend that he was a fugitive and that she was chasing him. That was it. That's what she can say. And she was about to blurt it out once when the guy began to talk.

"Oh, okay." Okay? He said it like nothing was wrong, like it was routine. Did this happen all the time. "Could you not get access to some place? Do you need our keys?"

He even began to reach in to his pocket. "No! That's okay, I just wanted to see who was in here." It was almost the truth. "I…I'm actually done. I'll be going." She pointed to the door and began to back out of the room.

"Alright, take care Lieutenant."

"You too," she said, and made a hasty exit.

She left the room to find Snow at the end of the corridor, leisurely walking towards her. "There you are," he waved to Lightning. "Where were you?"

She ignored his question. She had almost gotten caught bringing a civilian into a restricted space for very non-official business and she didn't' even a good explanation for why. She wanted out. She gave him a not-so friendly punch in the arm when she passed him. "I hope you found one you like. We're going."

"Wait a sec will you? Stop walking so fast," he pleaded behind her.

"No. I'm done with this. I was that close to...I'm leaving."

"There's one more thing. Hey!" Lightning suddenly found herself starring at Snow's chest. "Just one more thing I want to show you. Then we'll leave alright?"

Lightning looked Snow in the eye. She wanted to say "no", that and maybe hit him a few times in the jaw. There was such sincerity though on his face, almost looking up and asking "please." It was disarming enough to make her look away. She took a deep breath, exhaling some of the stress. Snow didn't wait for her to say anything, he ran down the hall, this time seizing her wrist and dragging Lightning along with him. "Snow!"

"It's just over here." He led her to a door at the end of the corridor. Beyond it instead of more rooms was a veranda, dotted with gardens the likes of which Lightning hadn't seen in a long time. It was Pulse vegetation but arranged in a way that made her think even more of home. A stair lead up to a raised level. Snow pointed, "This is what I wanted to ask you about." They walked her up the top of the stair, and of all the great views offered by the vistas they had visited that day, that one was the best. It was portrait worthy view of the Sun rising above the snow kept mountains, perfectly set between the Civic Center and the complex. "About your home," Snow continued.

"What do you mean? Bodhum?"

"I mean your old home, your parent's home," Snow explained hesitantly.

"Oh." Lightning suddenly understood why he didn't just ask her. To be truthful she hadn't about that place in years. It seemed very far away from her, but even so.

"You could see the…I mean, some mornings, when Phoenix lit up you guys could see the whole sea right?"

Lightning had to think back. It was so long ago she didn't quite believe any memories she had. "Yeah. It was a high loft. We had a balcony."

"I thought so." Snow paced around a bit before turning to Lightning. "You see, it hasn't exactly been easy on Serah adjusting to…this." He open his arms. "I'll admit even I've been wishing for my old place now and then. I miss being able to stand on the beach in the evening, feel the cool breeze as it comes over the water. You know, even if things weren't all that great."

"Just a little bit of home?"

"Exactly! That's what I wanted to give Serah. Something just to help her heart settle down. I guess I could've just asked."

Lightning closed her eyes, letting the warmth of the Sun wash away the chill from the over-air conditioned corridor. "You really do love her then don't you?" she said under her breath.

"Huh?"

Lightning turned back to him. "It's a nice place. But how are you gonna get one of these rooms?"

"That part I haven't quite figured out yet. I've asked everyone I could find at the CCA, but no one knew even when they would start leasing," Snow admitted.

And here she thought he had changed. "You're getting married."

"I know. I still have some time to figure it out. If you'd like to lend a hand…"

Lightning was about to say something, when they both heard the door open behind them. "Great," she moaned.

"It's probably the owner of that thing," Snow remarked.

"Huh?" He pointed to a velocycle that was parked on the corner of the platform. It was pretty flashy model too. Weird that she didn't notice it sooner. "It's alright. I'll handle it." She thumbed around for her badge, but as she did so she was struck by a familiar feeling. She looked again the velocycle. It was Falco type, dual-seater, with twin Vulcan cannons on the either side. "No fucking chance."

"Light?"

"Well, isn't this a coincidence," Ferd Journeyman said as he joined the pair on the platform. "You know, I was just wondering what you were up to Light, and here you are."

"Funny," Lightning responded. Snow looked at her, wondering why she was suddenly so annoyed.

"You must be Snow." Ferd walked over holding out his right hand.

Still confused as to what was going on, Snow took it after a pause. "Uh yeah."

"Lt. Commander Ferdinand Journeyman. We spoke on the phone the other day."

"Yeah. Thanks for helping me out," Snow said, wrenching his hand from the Commander's.

"Think nothing of it. So – what are you two doing up here?"

At first, neither Snow nor Lightning said anything, hoping the other would give him a convincing cover. Then they both blurted out the first thing that came to their minds. The end result was a garbled message of "just looking around."

Ferd responded with his usual nonchalance. "Alright whatever. It's good to meet you Snow. Lightning could you hand around for a little bit?"

"Yes sir," she acknowledged.

"Lovely," Ferd said walking between them. "It is a spectacular view though."

Snow and Lightning watched him, as someone might watch a man in a giant chocobo suite. "I'll meet you outside." Snow nodded with raised eyebrow, and walked down the stair. She bit her lip as he walked over to her Commander. "Uh about…" she began to explain herself.

"You don't need to explained yourself. Did you have any trouble getting into the building?"

"Good, means Admin wasn't lying to me. I had some trouble the other day getting into a small arms locker. And it was my locker too. We're supposed to have near-unlimited access. So just keep it reasonable."

Lightning asked.

"Me? I've been coming up here, or on top of the other buildings almost every day."

"Why?"

"Recon. I'm trying to get a better understanding of this place, and keep an eye out for anything strange, hard to do that from ground level."

"You know I could help you. I'm supposed to be helping you," Lightning pointed out.

"Your talents are wasted wandering around rooftops, starring out onto the horizon. Besides you just rejoined."

"I can handle it."

Ferd looked her in the eye. "I have no doubt. Believe men when I say this Lightning, very soon you're going to get what you want. We'll be so busy you'll be wishing for these slow days."

"That won't happen."

"Alright then. Now what are your thoughts about Ikebukuro?" Ferd asked Lightning.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"It's a district in Settlement A."

"Okay. What about it?"

"Nothing much, except that there's a nice facility that I think we could use as a home office. It has great access to the street and cycling lanes, no sweat getting in an out in a jiffy." He seemed genuinely excited about it.

Lightning shrugged. "Sounds good."

"It is. Anyway how 'bout at 0700 tomorrow we get the rest of the crew together. Have a little kick-off party?"

"Party? You mean a mission?" Lightning wondered.

"Maybe who knows?" Ferd answered and ignited the velocycle's engine. "I'll send you the coordinates!" He took off leaving Lightning alone on top of the tower.

That was how the day before went, and after weeks of being bounced around like a pinball she was finally back in the Guardian Corps, finally back home, finally back with a purpose in life.

Lightning finished the shower, drying herself off and dressing in uniform before even the morning twilight. She would admit to being a little nervous, more unsure actually. There really was no telling how this was going to play out.

* * *

Ikebukuro was a newly finished, actually a mostly finished part of Settlement A. Originally the CCA had planned it to be large transportation hub, so every new construction was designed to be interconnected by cycle lanes and pedestrian walkways. But once the magnetic rail lines were finalized it was clear the location was less than optimal, so they decided to make it into a service station for vehicles and even started to issue leases, however its proximity to civilian housing prompted them to change it yet again to a commercial area. This put the development of the area into a chaotic mess, and in this maelstrom a Lt. Commander put in a request for military office for the GC, which was approved. So in this strange convolution of events, a Guardian Corps military office was established in a civilian district, on a level situated between a hardware store for airships below and a hair-care and body spa above. Yet no one who worked on the building seemed to notice.

Lightning swore under her breath as she pushed her way through a crowded sidewalk. While the area was "open", as she was told repeated on the way, nothing was finished. Any direction she looked barriers segregated areas where Crusaders and other drones busily drilled, screwed or welded. Everyone else was forced onto the remaining sidewalk that had not been partitioned, in other words people were packed in lick sheep, and it was only a few minutes before seven in the morning. Lightning looked again at the scribbled number on the crumpled piece of paper. She at least hadn't missed it, but at this rate she wasn't going to be on time. She kept the paper close to her chest as she worked her way around the backside of a 2 meter tall guy who must have been 200 kilograms. Then finally she caught sight of her destination. It was little more than a door between the two units. One would be forgiven for thinking that it was just a janitorial closet. There was no sign or seal or anything to indicate what it was save for the number. She checked it and rechecked again to be sure. That it was it. That was her new post as an elite solider.

Lightning thought it prudent to knock first. Then pulled out her ID and placed it against the interface. The door opened to reveal a staircase, a long and dark staircase that lead upward. It looked pretty forbidding, but Lightning guessed that it was part of the plan. Leaving the noisy walkway behind she began to climb. A few steps in the door closed behind her, leaving her in utter darkness or second before running lights on the lower wall lighted the way. She walked up the stair several meters before it ended, opening into a larger room. From the sound of traffic outside she could tell that she must have been right next to the cycle lanes. Lightning groped at the edge of the wall looking for the light switch, nothing was there. She moved to the other side but still nothing. "Where are the lights?" she asked aloud and then of course the room illuminated.

Any doubts that she wasn't in the right place evaporated. The room was large for one, more of a laboratory or a garage than an office. There were two tables, two tables right in front of her. The first had about everything firearm or rifle she had ever handled, and then some, gunblades, semi-auto's, the specialized and the modified. The second had everything else, fixed blades, batons, riot staffs, grenades lethal and non-lethal, AMP-devices, and the miscellaneous. Beyond the tables there was a velocycle, single seat and pretty sleek, of some model she didn't recognize. The rest of the space was mostly empty, enough space for a small aircraft or even a tank. All in all, the place reminded her of the GC base back in Bodhum.

She had been perusing through the weapons when a alarm sounded, and the wall opposite of Lightning began lowered, and daylight flooded the room, followed shortly by Ferd and his velocycle.

"You're punctual." He powered down and exited. "I would've been here sooner, but this place is easy to miss. Ended up having to take a few passes."

"Understood." Lightning hardly even listened to explanations anymore.

"That's yours by the way." Ferd pointed the new velocycle next to her. "It's new type. The prototype had been completed before the Fall, but with the scarce resources it's taken awhile for them to get to production. They're calling it_ Tigris_."

"Tigris?" Didn't exactly sound like an appropriate name for Lightning.

"No need to thank me. It's supposed be the fastest type yet, probably even faster than my Falco."

"I won't ask how you got your hands on it."

"Funny. Believe it or not I didn't pull anything. Even a civilian could get it if they know who to talk to."

"Even these?" Lightning picked up a firearm that boasted a barrel half as tall as she was, pointing the sight at Ferd's head.

"Okay, the standard issue stuff."

Lightning put the rifle down and walking towards her new ride. Along the way she picked up one of the AMP devices. It had been awhile since she had last used one. She remembered exactly how she had used it and exactly how it had shorted out on the Hanging Edge, ages past. It still felt familiar though, from the hundreds of times she had used it in the Bodhum Security Division. She attached right where the last one had been.

"That's the same type we used in special forces. Output's the same as what you're used to, but it has a lot more charges before it shorts." Ferd walked over to the table. "Honestly I rarely used them."

"It's useful in tight spaces. So where's everyone else?" she asked.

"I gave Mars and Zen orders to report to auxiliary base in Settlement C at 0600, supposed to meet a couple of pilots that are joining up with us," Ferd answered.

Lightning had been expecting that answer. "So that's it then. This whole division is gonna be made up of six members, two of which are support."

"How many times have we talked about this Light? And there's one more, and I'd thought he be here by now." Ferd looked around the hangar.

"There was no one else here," Lightning said while opening the cockpit to her new velocycle. She allowed herself a small grin when she saw the consul. She had used cycles several times in the past, even got qualified to pilot one, but she never got far enough to have one of her own. Especially considering civilian sales of velocycle were highly restricted, and expensive. She was about to climb in, going as far as to put her foot onto the deck, when she found herself looking into a haggard, gray, bearded sleeping face. Now it wasn't quite a scream that came out her mouth, more like a panicked yell, that was loud enough to wake up whoever it was. Lightning jumped back and soon had the barrel of her gunblade pointed at his head. The intruder didn't seem to quite know what was going on, that or just didn't care that much that there was a gun in his face.

He yawned and rubbed his eyes. "Good morning."

Lightning just starred him, her heart still pounding from the surprise.

"Morning Chief," Ferd said as he walked over. "Did you stay here all night?"

The bearded guy yawned again. "Yes Commander. I lost track of the time." He stumbled out of the cockpit.

Lightning looked at Ferd. "Don't tell me." She lowered her gunblade.

"Lt. Farron, this is Chief Tidal. He's going to be in charge of management for this little outpost." Ferd pointed to the bearded intruder, who Lightning just noticed was in a GC uniform. He saluted her and gave him what might be called a pity salute back.

"Commander," the bearded man continued. "I was thinking about that question you asked me last night."

"Really?"

"Yes sir, you asked me if this base needed anything else. It occurred to me sir that besides these tables we have no furniture in the facility."

"I see. That could be a problem in the future. Though Chief if you do need to sleep, I would suggest that you return to your own quarters."

"Yes Commander. Very sorry about the surprise Lieutenant. May I resume my duties sir?"

"Of course." The Chief Beard saluted yet again and then walked toward the end of the hangar, and through the door at the end.

"Where did you find that fossil?" Lightning asked impetuously.

"I needed some help setting up this base. He's the best, no better mechanic in all of Cocoon. He retired a year ago, but I was able to convince him to help me out."

"Right."

"He's a little rough around the edges, and could definitely stand to shower more, but you'll learn to love him." Lightning just wanted to drop the subject.

A faint sound of engines came over the white noise of the cycle traffic outside the open shield door.

"That must be the rest of the Beatnik's," Ferd said.

The sound got exponentially louder than the body of a type-3 transport suddenly dropped into view. It landed and the engines powered down. Zen exited the aircraft first, in a hurry, followed by Mars who almost looked like she was chasing him. Sure enough, as Lightning guessed, the two of them had been arguing since they left.

"I don't want to hear it," Zen said, trying to escape.

"You know this is just like you. Can't take any criticism. Always have to have the last word, pretty boy!" Mars caught up to him.

"Yeah and you could never leave anything alone!"

"Hey!" Lightning called out to them, and they instantly shut up and rushed over.

"So you two know each other, I take it?" Ferd asked.

"Yes sir," Mars responded. "A long time ago."

"Not long enough for some obviously," Zen snarked.

"Shut it," Lightning ordered, before Mars had a chance to say anything back. "Whatever it is, drop it. Understand?"

Mars acknowledged immediately, and Zen did too after rolling his eyes. Lightning let it slide only because she didn't to deal with it.

"Alright, now that we all know each other we can finally get this party started." Ferd walked behind one of the two tables so he could face the three of them without having to turn his head. "The four of us constituent the operational arm of the Autonomous Special Operations Division. Though in name we are a part of the Guardian Corps, we are not part of the command structure. We are a separate entity all together, and our orders are issued from the Directors office exclusively. Beyond that we are given complete discretion, absolute autonomy on how we wish to accomplish our objectives. Never in the history of Cocoon has there been an entity like this."

Lightning looked down. That wasn't quite true, if you counted the six of them. Of course they were independent in whole different way.

"So congratulations. You are now a member a of the most elite fighting force ever. Each of you has proven yourselves to be uniquely talented and formidable soldiers. Before you get too proud though, let me tell this likely to be the dangerous and difficult assignment you've ever had. In general we will have no support of any kind, no forward intelligence, no back up if things get tight, nothing but we take with us, so that better be enough. With independence comes a wide degree of risk. And understanding of that risk only comes with experience that, unfortunately, not one of you has. To give you an example, in SpecRec we were supposed the best ever, peerless and unmatched, even when compared to the Sanctum Templars. We went into a situation we didn't understand and we were annihilated. And the lesson is this: be smart, and don't assume you know anything."

"Anyway, Lt. Farron and I look forward to working with the both of you. Expectations are high, so let's not disappoint." It was a speech that in another setting would have been tremendous, a grand moment of patriotism, a clarion call to arms, but in that room, with an audience of three people and the sound of morning traffic outside, it came across more as theatre of the absurd.

Lightning stood there unsure how to react. She thought she might add something to his remarks, but would she say? She looked at Mars and then Zen, both of which had the same uncertainty on their faces. The awkward silence was only broken by the sound of something clapping. Lightning turned around to see that it was Chief Beard.

"Thank you Chief. Any questions?" There were none. "Alright then, I know everyone just got here, but we're gonna have to cut the welcoming party short this time." Ferd waved toward the type-3 transport, and the pilot reignited the engines. "I'll explain where we're going on the way. This is the rundown though. Jac…"

"Sir," she perked up at her mention.

"You're our weapons specialist. You have two minutes to stock up as many big-guns as you think we'll need." Mars seemed almost giddy to Lightning at the order. Zen rolled his eyes yet again.

"Zen, you're the field technician. Make sure every sensor and explosive is appropriately packed." For a moment Zen didn't move. "I'm sure you don't need me to tell you how."

"Of course Commander. I was just a little hypnotized." Lightning bit her lip again, but kept her cool.

Once the two rookies were busy, Lightning turned to Ferd. "What about me?"

"You're fine as you are, but feel free to take anything extra if you want." Ferd walked over to his velocycle and pulled out his long katana.

Lightning tightened the sheath of her gunblade, made sure it was in the right orientation. She checked the AMP device, functioning optimally. She didn't like to carry that much if she had the choice, but she did grab some light body armor, just enough not to impede mobility.

"So where are we going?" she asked Ferd as they walked toward the type-3 transport.

"About two hundred kilometers North. There's mining operation there that has run into some problems."

"What kind of problems?"

"Not sure," Ferd answered her with that wry smile. "Didn't you listen to my speech?"

Lightning smirked, "What makes you think I listen to you at all?"

"Ha."

They entered the type-3 transport through the rear. Lightning followed Ferd towards the

cockpit. "Gentlemen," he addressed the two, "welcome to the group."

"Pleasure's all ours Commander. We've heard a lot about you," the Pilot responded. Though the voice was masked somewhat by the nose of the engines, she knew that she had heard that voice before.

"Good things I hope."

The copilot turned his head. "I heard you're a real smart ass." It couldn't be them. "And something of an ace." Fate couldn't be so cruel. "Eh Stat?" Of course…

"Well I had some good moves back in the day." He turned around to Lightning. "The Lieutenant here is the real ace of this unit." He stepped back. She couldn't hide.

"Woah, Lightning!" Statler was surprised.

"As I fucking live and breathe. You're an ace of aces Lightning." Waldorf waved to her. She had to. Only an ass wouldn't wave back.

"Well," Ferd had the biggest smile on his face. "Isn't this a tiny, little Pulse."

Lightning moved to the back, strapping herself in. Mars finished her preparations followed immediately by Zen. Ferd joined her once they were settled.

"You knew," she accused him.

"Knew what?"

"You knew," she repeated. "This can't be a coincidence."

"Light, I have no idea what you're talking about." He secured the rear hatched and then sat himself down. "Take off!" The aircraft slowly hovered out of the hangar, and then speed off at full speed, waved away by the Bearded Chief.


	6. A Lost Darkness

So here's part 2. Hopefully it's worth the wait from part 1. Life only get's busier but I think I can budget my time enough to get the next one out early next month. Send me all your thoughts.

-Stonehenge

A Lost Darkness

It was immediately apparent to interim government, the uneven and checkered array of civilian and military leaders of the dead Sanctum, that without the fal'Cie all their wonderful devices that they so heavily depended on would soon die. Compact particle accelerations, reactors, nuclear fusion catalysts, magnetostatic batteries, even basic electronic circuts, the fundamental units that made the airships fly, were made of very rare earth-elements, things that couldn't be found on the surface of…well anywhere. Fal'Cie provided a nearly endless supply, ergo round-the-clock production of weapons, crusaders, myriadons, deck drones, airships could take place. Now that crutch was gone, and the new masters would have to find their own. So major preparations immediately began to scout for and mine these elements from the very dangerous underground of Pulse. But fortunately for the exiled Cocoonians, most of the work had been done for them.

Lightning had a forbidding feeling when Ferd described the situation, a feeling which seemed lost on her comrades. There were dozens of old Pulse mining sites scattered throughout the continent, probably even more Abandoned, worn, but surprisingly operational, kept by the Pulse machines which, long after their masters had disappeared, continued to maintain them. She doubted anyone else in that airship knew that. Of course none of them had the pleasure of spending several days underground. They didn't have the first hand experience of how, and dangerous the Pulse underground really was. Nor were they even remotely aware that there was a roaming fal'Cie, crushing anything in its path.

The cavern they were going to, compared to all the other sites discovered was by far the most impressive. It was unknown how deep it went, though it was conclusively determined to be deeper than 3 kilometers. It was unknown how extensive it went under the mountain range, but it was conclusively determined to be well outside a radius of fifty. Ferd reported to them the kind of operations, hardware, megafauna, all Pulse. To Lightning it was so familiar to a particular cavern Lightning had traversed when she was a l'Cie. Soon enough it was visible from the air. The entrance was more than just a whole in the ground. It had a large outer structure, a grand architecture of white marble, in fact. It looked almost holy in the sunlight. It gave any observer the impression of much more than just an entrance to a mine. There were abandoned rail tracks, toppled cranes, overgrown storage units, all the signs off civilization, except the people. Lightning had to admit that it looked perfect, a huge cache of gold handed to them on plates of silver. It would be an easy thing to revamp all the abandoned facilities with tougher, more efficient Cocoon equivalents. Lightning could see why the CCA would be drooling over it. Too bad.

There were several aircraft in patrol patterns around the complex, not recon either, combat patrols. Bellow Lightning could see a few Orion's and PSICOM squads fanning out over the area. There wasn't any formation, almost like they didn't know what they were looking for. Of course she was exactly right.

They landed on a clear area of concrete, as close as they could safely fly. Lightning and Ferd jumped out first, right in front of a couple of PSICOM grunts. They seemed like they wanted to cause a fuss till Ferd flashed his ID. "You guys have a squad leader right?" he asked.

One of them cocked his helmet toward the entrance. "Inside."

Lightning watched them with a little suspicion. They seemed like the normal types she was used to dealing with, but it's hard to forget things like the Purge.

"You look ridiculous," she heard Zen say to Mars behind her.

"Shut up," was Mars' answer.

She turned around and immediately glared at Zen, but found her eyes drawn to her fellow woman in the group. To say the girl was armed would be akin to saying an Aman hound had teeth. The girl looked like a walking battleship. She had one gun inher hands, a large shotgun that had 5mm rounds. She had another slung over shoulder, almost touching the ground. There was a more portable short semi-auto hanging just bellow her back. The pack she carried was obviously full enough ammo and other things to take on the entire GC. But at least she wore a pair of clear safety glasses. Lightning couldn't believe she didn't notice on the flight over.

Lightning tried not to laugh. "Don't you think that's little overkill?" she asked.

Mars looked down at herself, and the gun in her hands. She really couldn't see it. "Really?"

Lightning had to laugh. "Don't fall behind," she warned.

"Yes Ma'am!"

Lightning recalled a found quote a male cadet said from her basic training. "What could be sexier than a girl who likes to hold huge guns?" The three followed their commander inside.

Though it was darker than broad daylight, it was far from black. Lightning knew that was going to be the case. Running lights surrounded the perimeter of the deck they stood, overhead lanterns dangled overhead in every passageway, and occasional spotlights provided even more illumination. Despite the labyrinth tunnels, ones first impression was that it would be hard to lose your way.

The PSICOM squad leader was standing near the edge, looking over the cavern floor and occasionally giving commands to his members that were scattered around the area. He didn't really when he saw them advancing into the cavern. In fact he seemed more like he just wanted to leave.

"Good morning," Ferd greeted.

The PSICOM soldier removed his helmet, eying the four of form with what Lightning thought was a mild annoyance. "I know you," he answered Ferd, "You're that SpecRec guy."

"Was. That job unfortunately went and petrified."

"Right. Well Commander, what can I do for the GC today?"

"We'd just like to know what happened. Information's not what it used to be," Ferd replied.

"Hate to disappoint you sir, but that's the one thing I can't tell you."

"What?" Lightning blurted.

"We wouldn't just be standing around here if we knew," the PSICOM retorted to Lightning.

"I don't know. Maybe you would," Zen commented.

Ferd spoke before the PSICOM squad leader could snap back. "You can at least tell us the facts though, correct?"

The squad leader kept looking at Zen for a moment. He licked his lips and looked back at Ferd. "The facts are these: this place was discovered about a month ago. Preliminary geological survey suggested the underground was likely to be rich in heavy conductors, especially neodymium and promethium. A week later a full scientific team was sent out conducting a throughout probe: seismographs, sonar, drones, core samples, the works. A full combat team cleared the area of all potentially dangerous Pulsians, and further, noxious gas was pumped deep into the network to eradicate anything that might've escape the sweep."

Noxious gas, a euphemism for nerve agent. It was typical PSICOM, if it couldn't be pinned down, just kill everything.

He continued, "Three weeks after discovery this mine became fully operational and was hazard free for exactly one week. However approximately thirty-two hours ago…"

"The shit hit the fan right?" Zen practical sang.

The squad leader took a step toward him, but Ferd put himself in his way. Lightning quickly told Zen to shut it before he say anything either. Mars added by hitting Zen upside the head.

"C'mon, let's just do our jobs," Ferd tried to cajole the leader.

The PSICOM leader bit his lip before he kept talking. "The squad on watch lost contact with the crew inside. At first it appeared that had simply gotten lost. But in twenty hours nothing has been found."

"So they're still out there," Lightning snapped. "And you're just giving up?"

"You don't understand. _Nothing_ has been found. No tracks, no gear, no ammo casings, no bodies…not even the damn LAN line they were using to maintain communications. No shit. They're just gone."

"That's hard to believe." Lightning folded her arms.

"Well I don't give a shit what about you believe," the squad leader snapped back.

"Calm down," Ferd interceded. "But I would like to know why you're not in-deep looking?"

"You're fucking crazy if you think I'm just gonna have my boys running around in the dark looking for people that are probably already dead." Lightning's fist clenched. "There's a rumor you almost got eaten by something big and nasty. Don't tell me you can't image what kind of monster is lurking around down. I'm not gonna turned into swiss-cheese by some hell-born Pulsians, and neither is my squad."

"That's too bad. I love cheese." Ferd turned around. "Zen, you think could hook up a coil of wire between your pack and the transport's comm?"

"Easy," he responded and got to work.

"Lightning," Ferd addressed her while nodding to a large CCA crawler, a big box of goodies. "You and Jac look around in the back of that. We're going to need a lot of things that light up.

She and Mars acknowledged. Lightning made sure to give the squad commander a little smirk before marking her way. For the moment Ferd took a long look over the edge of the deck, in the labyrinth and thought about what was in store.

"You're not going down there." The squad leader stood on Ferd's right.

"Of course we are. You don't really think I came all the way out here just to talk to you?"

"This is our party Commander. Your help is not needed."

"Really? At the pace you're going now it'll take you weeks before you know anything," Ferd criticized. "Feel free, to keep doing whatever you see fit thought."

"You think four people is enough to search these catacombs? You either really cocky, which I believe, or just stupid."

Ferd grinned. "The reason we're down here is because we can do something that you obviously can't."

The squad leader gritted his teeth. "Which is?"

"Interpolate," Ferd answered. "Now if you don't mind, I'd like to see all the logs you've gathered."

* * *

It didn't take long for Lightning and Jac to find everything that was needed. The crawler had everything someone would ever dream about if they were going underground: light sources, oxygen, explosives, all the stuff Lightning wished she'd had when she was in the same place as a l'Cie. They found Zen on the deck, strapping a large coil of insulated electrical wire to his pack, and Ferd scrolling through files on a tablet computer. Everyone got a primary light and a backup, several flares, some glow-sticks in addition to what they already carried, masks and O2 tanks in case of natural gas emissions, a working map of the tunnels and they were ready to go. Lightning watched the PSICOM members eyeing them as they marched out off the main deck. Behind the glowing eyes of their combat she wondered if they were impressed, or just bemused.

The first leg was a small lift that took them to a lower deck in the cavern. Then second was one of the larger tunnels that feed into that cavern. From there it was through a fork, and then a long walk in the dim light of the underground.

"Why are we going this way again?" Zen asked for the second time.

Lightning looked back over her shoulder. They had been walking around fifteen minutes. Ferd was in the lead, followed by Mars and herself practically in line, while Zen had the rear, uncoiling the communication wire as they walked.

"He just told you, pretty boy," Mars snapped at him.

"And if it made sense, I wouldn't be asking again."

"If you had been listening it might've made sense," Lightning added.

"It's alright. I prefer that someone asks rather than not." Ferd slowed his pace. "It's pretty simple. The CCA kept a checklist of what tunnel their people went down, recorded the time they went down and time they came back up to the surface. The very last people to report back where always down in the lowest tunnel in the Northeast. Except in the last entry when they never returned."

"Okay," Zen acknowledged. "Why are we in this tunnel and not that one, sir?"

"One: the PSICOM boys have already checked that place out very thoroughly. Two: I think that they never came back from that tunnel because they didn't go down it in the first place. My guess is they came down here. This one lies outside the survey area, leads West under the mountains."

"You think they found something Commander?" Mars asked.

"Or something found them," Lightning commented, glancing at the rock formations of the wall.

"I'd bet on both at this point," Ferd agreed. "Whatever happened, it was enough to convince everyone else to go help them."

They passed by another passageway. They stopped for a moment and looked down until it forked off into infinitely, illuminated by the same ancient lights. It had the look that something ominous was waiting at the end of it. The more they starred the more Lightning felt that was true.

"Let's keep going straight," Ferd spoke after a moment. "We'll double back, if need be." Lightning could hear the wariness in his voice. After all he was the one that had gotten lost in the GHQ. It was good to hear that she wasn't the only one who was feeling uneasy. Though looking down into infinity only made Lightning's sense of dread worsen. They continued on, stray glances finding their way back to that corridor.

"RED EYE to A.T., any news?" Statler's voice asked from the comm. on Zen's shoulder.

"A.T, negative RED EYE. Next update in ten," Zen answered. "I think we're wasting our time," he said to the group.

"You sound like your friends back there," Lightning shot back.

"They're not my friends, not even close. And what do you think killed these people Lieutenant?" Zen responded.

Lightning could a dozen on the top of her head, more if you include certain fal'Cie. "Who says they're dead?"

Zen shrugged. "The fact that they've been missing for two days. Mines are dangerous. There's carbon monoxide, gas explosions, boiling hot groundwater, not to mention the roof caves in sometimes. And that's probably what happened to these guys."

"There's also spiders," Mars commented.

Zen scowled. "You know about that?"

"Excuse me?" Lightning asked.

Mars stuttered a little bit under her attention. "Uh, ma'am. Specialist Zen does not like spiders."

"You're afraid of spiders?" Lightning asked Zen.

"With respect Lieutenant, you'd be too if ran into one that was bigger than you were." Zen looked away. Despite in the insubordination Lightning grinned. She had said much the same thing once, to Amodar back in the day.

"Caldera right?" Ferd suddenly said.

Zen immediately turned his head. "Were you there Commander?"

"Near the end, mopped up the leftovers after Rosch blew the place. It was a huge mess." Ferd looked back. "I don't blame you."

"Huh." Zen seemed almost impressed, as well as embarrassed.

"Commander, why did they think that this tunnel was unsafe?" Mars asked.

"It's seismically active. They thought it was likely to collapse." They all looked at the ceiling then.

The tunnel began to gently curve them to the left and maybe half a degree downward. It was hot too. Lightning had felt the heat as soon as she had entered the mine. It was bearable at first, but now she was starting to notice how much she was sweating. It was oppressive, humid and congested, worse than any she had experienced in recent memory. Any spare chance she reached into her vest and pulled the sticking fabric of her shirt away, to get some ventilation. How people made careers workings in such places she couldn't imagine.

There was sand on the floor of the cave in front of them, at least it looked like sand. It was grayish in color, but it had all the consistency of what one might find on a beach. Lightning ended up walking ahead of Ferd when she saw it, jogging to the edge. Even from more than twenty meters away she could see the recent depressions, some strange tracks that looked like they were made by Pulsian automatons but the others were definitely human.

"Commander," she shouted.

Ferd looked it over, nodding his head. "That's a lot of dust. I bet they were blasting."

"At least we know that they came down this way." Mars took a few steps along the sand.

"We still have to find them. This doesn't tell us much more than we already know," Zen reminded her.

"It tells us that we aren't wasting our time," Lightning snapped at Zen. "Now call it in."

She heard the protesting growl in his voice as he followed her order. Meanwhile Ferd squatted down with her, pointing to the other tracks alongside the human. "I wonder what made this."

Lightning looked. It was a strange track. Track was bad word for it looked it, it was more like a pattern in the sand. "Some drone?" she guessed.

"Possibly, then is it one of ours or something else? But it looks more twenty guys were her recently. That though, is definitely a crawler. There was something happening down here."

Lightning nodded in agreement, clutching the handle of her gunblade.

"Let's get going."

And their downward journey continued. There was little change in the next hundred meters. The tunnel led them farther down and further to the left, like a spiral into the abyss. Experience, that is her experience in the Mahabara underground, told her that it would eventually branch out into a complicated network, most likely made by that Pulse fal'Cie, the one she had once hitched a ride on. Instinct however pulled her mind completely in the opposite direction. In the pit of her stomach she knew that something was waiting for them at the end of that road in the earth, something that they didn't want to meet.

Ahead of them, on cusp of a sharp turn one of the lanterns flickered on and off. The group stopped starring at the anomally. "Why is that one not working?" Mars asked the question they all were thinking.

"Let's find out," Ferd answered.

The group brandished their weapons: Mars cocked her shotgun, bringing up to her shoulder. Zen fished a standard semi-automatic rifle. Lightning unsheathed he gunblade. Ferd took his oversized blade off his shoulder. Each step they warily, watching, listening to faint sound of the filament in the lantern to the soft crunch of their feet on the sand, and to unknown space that was in front of them. A few meters away, there was more than one light flickering, a whole row in fact. Some blinked slow and steadily while others flickered wildly in short uneven bursts, causing their shadows to dance chaotically on the floor. At the far she could see several that were dead altogether, and not far beyond the tunnel was dark altogether. Lightning breathed deeply to steady herself. Even with her experience, it was a little unnerving.

They reached the end and where they expected to find a wall, the rock had been blown away. Where there had been a wall they found a massive hole, wide enough to easily accomidate a crawler, or a fal'Cie. The sand became thicker, packed down by dozens of tracks and footprints, gravel and stones mixed in. Inside they could see strewn out equipment, dormant spotlights, drill attachments, even some hardhats. Further in they could make out the large wheel of a CCA crawler, the sister of the one they had found in the cavern's entrance. There was no visible damage, but yet no sign of life. Lightning could see the power lines from the back of the crawler to a nearby spotlight were intact. It took only a second to find the power switch.

"I said so right," Zen said behind her.

Before them was a pile of rubble, a big pile of rubble. In the dim light of cave it looked as though the rock was flowing out of the wall, like a wave.

"They all died in a cave-in," Zen repeated.

"Let's find a body before we jumped to that conclusion," Ferd suggested. "Jac can you turn on the rest of the spotlights?"

"Yes sir," Mars acknowledged.

"Something on your mind?" Ferd walked up behind her.

Lightning looked around at the strewn about remains of the mining operation. "I don't know. It just looks so clean."

"Yeah," Ferd agreed. "Not exactly what I'd expect from a cave-in."

"I'm calling it in," Zen announced, sounding like a child ready to go home from school. "PSICOM can dig through this mess."

Ferd held up his hand to stop him. "Hold off on that Zen. Light's right. We need to find some harder evidence."

The last light was activated, and the whole dark cavern was then bathed in a warm orange light.

"There all working fine sir. They were just turned off."

"Yeah I see that Jac. Makes me wonder," Ferd commented.

"Wonder what?" Zen complained.

"What kind of miner turns off his flashlight when he's underground?" Lightning shot back at him.

"That or maybe this wasn't a cave-in," Ferd mused, putting his hand to his chin.

"Then what is it?" Zen asked, getting ever more impatient.

"I don't know." Zen scoffed and Mars just laughed at him.

Lightning shared Zen's desire to get out of there. Every step was a reminder of how hot it down there. Except for her outward vest every piece of clothing she wore was soaked in salty sweat. Standing around wasn't helping in the matter. She re-sheathed her blazefire gunblade and began to scale the pile. The rest of the group watched her, clearly not understanding what she was doing. She looked back of the long faces. "Anyone care to give me a hand?"

Mars unloaded her shotgun, pushing it toward Zen who took it without much protesting. She placed her heavy packed gingerly on the ground before joining Lightning. A few minutes of hand shoveling stones later, they found a cavity on the other side.

"See anything?" Ferd asked from bellow.

Lightning got her face as she could, shining her flashlight through the hole: there were some rock edges but not much more. "Not really."

"Huh? Zen how many remotes do you have?"

"Two, and they're small."

"Perfect, see if you can get one through," Ferd ordered.

"Sure if someone will take back their weapon."

Mars took the hint and hopped down to grab her shotgun. Lightning took a moment to pry more of the rock away. Remotes were your typically drone, just compact and light. Most of their weight was their propulsion system, the multiple CCD cameras hardly weighed anything. Lightning never had much occasion to use them in Bodhum. Even in the Vile Peaks it was more efficient to go see something for yourself rather than remotely operate a camera.

The palm sized drone hovered for a moment as Zen configured its optics then buzzed its way to the top of the rumble. Lightning watched it as it bumped into the side of cavity on its way through. Lightning laughed. Amodar always called them "fat bumblebees" and now she was seeing why.

"Anything?" Ferd asked again.

"Give me a minute," Zen muttered, eyes fixed on the display.

Lightning watched the drone through the cavity, it's indicator lights made it took like firefly.

"Now?" She heard Ferd asked yet again. The remote was circling around trying to find something to mark its position.

"Just…nothing."

"Nothing?" Mars tried to crowd her head as well.

"I mean there's a lot of empty space," Zen clarified. "I'll have to look around for a little bit."

Lightning watched the remote change its elevation, up and down, still there wasn't anything else visible in the cavity. "Lightning," Ferd called. She turned her head. "What about you?"

"Same." She looked back toward the remote. It had left her field of view, but she could still the aura of the indicators lights. On the whole it gave the cavity an eerie atmosphere. Peering into the darkness sometimes Lightning thought she could see something move, but then of course as the remote came closer, there was nothing there.

"What does the infrared see?" Ferd asked.

"You mean besides us Commander?" Zen responded.

Ferd continued to ask him how he set the optics: what was the frame rate, the resolution, the contrast the signal-to-noise ratio? All the while Lightning watched the probe do an awkward waltz up and down, back and forward. She rolled her eyes when they started to into whether or not they could do a tomographic x-ray probing. The conversation left her dizzy enough that she didn't hear the low rumbling in ground till it was already shaking.

* * *

Lt. Commander Ferdinand Journeyman could kill himself for not noticing it sooner. He knew he would have felt it coming several seconds earlier if he had been outside. Underground though her had no orientation, no way to direct himself till the earthquake was already upon them. It wasn't a cave-in, no he was certain of that. It was from below, deep below. Exactly what it was didn't really matter. What did was that they, the four of them, were at a complete disadvantage.

He looked and saw had her weapon drawn, looking towards the ceiling, if only it was that simple. "Lightning, get down from there!"

She looked down at him and understood. She tried to jumped down. She tried, but the ground she was pushing against had already given way. There was no chance he could grab her, there wasn't enough time. He could've tried something more fancy, but he would put Mars and Zen at risk, and himself.

One thing to do. He pushed Zen toward the tunnel and grab pulled Jac along with him. Then lights went out. He heard the moaning of metal as the crawler flipped over into the abyss. He needed to move faster, he could the feel the floor softening beneath his feet. He found the AMP device on the side of his belt and activated it.

* * *

Lightning was falling. It wasn't so easy to tell since the air was so thick. But she was sure of that. She was also that less than two seconds she had been standing on solid ground. She heard the sound, thinking maybe it was one of those huge Centurions pouncing on them. That's what her first impulse. Then the remote disappeared completely. But that time the sound was so loud she could hardly hear anything, and wasn't sure what Ferd had said when he called out to her. She had looked down and saw the urgency in his eyes and his outstretched arm. It didn't take a genius to figure that out.

Then she was falling and it was dark. She could barely see her red shoulder cape streaming behind her. For a brief moment she felt almost serene, but then the panic finally came. She knew what to do though. She had this dozens of times on purpose. How was this any different? She snapped her figures once: too fast. Again, still no. But the third time it activated. She flipped herself over and saw the ground rushing up to meet, and just like in training fattened herself out, and softly landed on a pillow of electrostatic energy.

Of course that wasn't the end. She covered her head as the debris came crashing down around her. Then something huge crashed in front of her, and all visibility was gone.

* * *

Ferd looked down the pit, stepping as close as he could to where the floor had been. Behind him Zen had fallen over and was struggling back to his feet. Mars was leaning against the wall of the tunnel panting. It had been close, but lucky enough the floor of the tunnel seemed to be made of denser rock. They were safe for the moment.

He was sure that wasn't the case for Lightning though.

He had tried to raise her, but there was no response on any frequency. He could think of a dozen reasons for that, and none of them were good. He was reasonably sure though that she was still alive. How long that would be was a whole other question.

"Are you alright Commander?" Mars asked him.

"I'm fine Jac. I'm not so sure about Lt. Farron."

"I said it!" Zen proclaimed.

"Knock it off, pretty boy," Mars panted.

"Mines are dangerous. Didn't I say so?"

"You did Zen, but we need to focus now. Call Statler now. Tell that PSICOM squad leader we're going to need equipment for deep descent." Ferd tried to get Lightning on the communicator again, no response

"Was it an earthquake?" Mars asked, joining him on the edge. "It had to be right?"

"I'm not so sure," Ferd replied.

"We have a problem here!"

Ferd growled slightly turning back to Zen. "What?"

"I have no signal from Red Eye. I can't raise them."

"Is the line tangled? Try jerking it…" Mars suggested.

"No, I mean have no signal. None! It's been cut." Zen threw his headset to the ground in disgust.

Ferd walked over, grabbing the wire and pulling. It seemed to give why much to easily.

"But who would do that?" Mars asked. "We're the only ones down here."

Ferd looked down the tunnel. "I think those gentlemen might know."

"What?" Zen shot to his feet.

Ferd could see that they could here it too, once they had stopped stalking: the oddly periodic shuffling footsteps of the Pulse automatons were too distinct too misidentify. With each moment it became louder, till faint shadows were walking toward them.

"I thought they had wiped out all the Pulsians in this place." Zen pulled out his pistol.

"All the ones they could find," Ferd clarified. "I bet the sound of the cave floor collapsing triggered a defense subroutine."

"How many do think there are?" Zen asked.

"Enough to cause us problems." Ferd looked to the edge again. He had an idea. Like most he had there was some risk, but potentially a high pay off: Lightning's safety. "The good news is that one of us had the foresight to pack enough firepower to deal with them." Mars smiled at the compliment, and readied her weapon. "Jac if you'd be so kind…"

"With pleasure Commander." She winked at Zen, and walked several meters into the tunnel, finding herself the optimal position to fire on them.

Zen shook his head. She hadn't changed, not at all.

"Zen, you have about 500 meters of wire left right?" Ferd asked him.

"Just about. What are you thinking?" Mars began firing.

Ferd gave him a wry smile. "We're going make a lure, and then if we can, fish Lt. Farron out of that pit."

* * *

Lightning gritted her teeth as she pushed against the rock. Well, she pushed against the aurora of plasma energy which pushed against the rock. She counted to five in her head: 1…2… and it shot away on 3. Her heart sank at what was beyond it: more rocks. She dialed back down to the default setting, resting for a moment before doing it again.

The SpecRec AMP device did a fine job of preventing her from dying in the fall, and from being crushed in the mountain of debris that followed. It didn't stop her from being buried though. Fortunately unlike normal AMPs, the set she had gave her fine control over the energy flux, i.e. she could amplify the output wherever she wanted. Focusing it on her hands gave her a pretty good jackhammer, though to do it she had to override a few safety features. At first the current only caused her fingers to go a little numb. After the fourth try though, that numbing turned into a throbbing pain that was spreading up into her forearms. And worse she was running down the charge pretty quickly. Lightning figured that she had three more before it died. Forget using it to get back to the tunnel. There was also the possibility she could cause another cave-in, but she just chose not think about that.

Lightning rubbed her hands together, psyching herself up as best she could and dialed the device up again. She pushed against the rock, wincing from the current and closing her eyes from the blinding plasma. 1…2…3…4… on 5 it broke away. More rock.

Crawling into the cavity she made she lain on her back for a moment, holding her arms against her chest. She looked at the rock with scorn. It was the simplest thing in the world, rock, the lowest of the low, bottom of the pyramid, bottom of the food chain, not even in the food chain, and it was beating her. She realized how she was sweating. She felt like she had just gone swimming in pool of her own sweat. And for that moment all she could think about was how nice it would be to take a shower. How nice…not to be buried alive.

She looked forlornly at low the charge was on the AMP. Two left and then it probably wouldn't work ever again. Looking at the rock again, she found herself doubting she was even going the right way. There was no time to back track though. She was not going to last long buried alive. Lightning dialed up the output again. She could barely feel her hands at that point, but she managed. She pushed against the plasma bubble again. 1…2…3 and on 4 it burst away.

This time there was no rock on the other side, just darkness. At that point it might as well been daylight. She stood up in the darkness, the glow from the AMP illuminating the area around her feet. She was standing on a pile of rock, metal equipment, and everything else that was up in the tunnel. Not far beyond though she could see a "flatter" area, at least comparatively. Behind her was the contorted body of the crawler, its content splattered around as though they were entrails. Beyond that there were many rusted Pulse machines that had fallen there over the centuries, rusted and in disarray. Many light sources too, all over the place, but none of them worked. To be blunt, it looked like a graveyard.

You can't just stand around, she said to herself. She knew she couldn't just keep the AMP running. She grabbed the only light she had on her, and snapped her fingers to deactivate it. It was profoundly dark when she did so. It was something that made one appreciate how precious their sight was, and how easily that sight could be taken away. She had to smack it once, but the flashlight did ignite.

Now she could see the cave wall, the one she just fell down from. She could see the different layers of sediment as they had built up over time, and how they had been warped over time. She had fallen quite a distance, exactly how far she couldn't tell. Her light diverged too much to see the top of the hole she had fallen into, if it was still open. Getting back up wasn't going to trivial. She just hoped it was still possible.

She tried her comm. but there was no response. Either she was too deep, or there was enough polarized material in the rock to cancel it out. Shouting wouldn't anymore effective either way, but it was still worth a shot.

"Hey!" Her voiced echoed repeated in the void. "Commander?" The sound seemed to reflect all around her. "Anyone?" The last echo traveled through and faded. No response. Figures.

Lightning didn't take any time to despair. If her past experience was any indication, those tunnels were far more connected than anyone thought. She walked away from the wall, where floor became slightly more level. It was worth her time to scout the immediate. At the very least there might be some usable piece of equipment.

She walked steps before she shot back around, drawing her gunblade. A rock had rolled down the pile. She relaxed, but as she could hear a faint rumbling in the ground. It ceased before anything came crashing down, but Lightning's nerves still shook after it was done. It was bad enough to have one cave in, another would just be catastrophic.

Relax... She needed to keep alert but not to panic, especially with the thick air. She just made up her mind to keep moving when more noises came from above, ahead, and behind. She turned on a dime. She couldn't see the source. Now Ferd's voice was the furthest thing from her mind.

In her mind's eye Lightning could see the type of thing that might be stalking her, large, nimble, keeping to shadows, silencing its movements. She could think of several Pulse creatures that fit the description.

More noise…

It sounded almost like claws rattling against the rock. Maybe it was flying? Maybe it was attracted by the cave-in? Maybe it caused the cave-in? Lightning thought as much as soon as she had gotten into that place. It had to be that fal'Cie then. Nothing else made sense to her. Unless, it was completely unknown, just like that other monster.

Something landed behind her, much too softly to be rock. Lightning had her muzzle pointed there in a quarter-second, trigger ready. But nothing came. Nothing except her heavy breathing.

Lightning slowly backed herself up. She needed to find some cover. There was no way she could defend herself in the open when she could barely see.

And then her light started to flicker.

"No."

She smacked it, lightly and then strongly, but this time it didn't behave. And as soon as it did whatever had landed in front of her came charging forward, with a sound of a freighter. She had no time to strategize. Maybe if she had a moment she could ignite a flare, if she still had one. All Lightning could do then though was dive out of the way, and swung her blade blindly in the dark. She heard the clang of her sword slicing against something hard, and she her sword flew away. She tumbled a little bit, quickly coming to her knees. She heard a roar behind her, and then the thing charged again. She wasn't even on her feet yet. No choice, Lightning snapped her fingers, using the last bit of charge in her AMP. The darkness parted and she bolted away, stopping herself on what used be an arm of CCA drill. Lightning could see a lot of equipment laying around, she he had to time to think of that. Whatever _it _was, it didn't charge again, pausing, not daring to come anywhere near the area light by the plasma. Almost like it was afraid.

It was…

Lightning didn't know if that bit of information was enough to win, but it was at least enough to make a plan. She only had maybe thirty seconds left before the AMP depleted. She looked around and spied her gunblade only a few meters away. Grabbing it she listened for where the thing was. She fingered through her satchel. She did have one, but only one flare. There was a decent sized boulder behind that would do. She jumped to it one go, getting herself as low as possible into bellow it's overhang. Holding her gunblade close, she deactivated the AMP.

The charge came as expected, sounding louder than Pulse juggernauts that wandered around the continent. She had to wait. She waited until the noise was beyond deafening, when she feel the ground quaking under her feet. She waited until she no chance to escape. She waited until her adversary was inches from crushing her…and she held the flare out and ignited it.

She could only see it for a moment, and even then in the blinding light it was not at all clear what Lightning was looking at. It was as large as the biggest fiend that roamed Pulse, except for Titan. It surrounded her on all sides, almost like it was embracing her. The wail it gave out sounded more like panic than pain. Even so, Lightning emptied ever shell she had straight into what she hoped was its head. The panic turned into wrath, and the monster smashed everything around her. She lost her hold on the flare and it fell away and was stomped out.

Lightning jumped away from her hiding place, firing randomly, and ran into darkness. It came after her. She fired again and again behind her, not knowing it was even still there…or any idea of where she was going.

And then she fell. She fell what it was as soon as she had lost her balance, a wire caught around her boot. Her blade was extended as soon as she caught her fall. When she cut it though the "pop" it made was as loud as a few sticks of dynamite.

They still had power.

For several second the sparks it created almost light up the entire cavern. And it immediately moved to conceal itself. Lightning knew the sparks would only delay it, but they gave her a chance to win.

She had seen them before, the same lanterns that lined the walls of the cavern, had been dragged down there. She know idea if it would work. She had never studied a wiff of electrical engineering in her life. She had the option when she took basic training, but she opted out. What she did know was: power + light bulb =

Lightning was thrown on her ass, and her ears were ringing, and she could feel her hair standing on end. But she wasn't dead. The flash was a lot brighter than she thought it would be. But she wasn't blind. She stood up and shielding her eyes. She had cut a slice of the covering of the wire that connected the lanterns, and threw it on the one she had just made. Stupid? Probably. She was girl enough to admit that. But it worked.

The lanterns blinked on and off, got brighter and dimmer at a high frequency, but they stayed on. They still lit the entire cavern though with a soft, but adequate amount of light. It was gone though. No noise came from any direction. No gargantuan shadows loomed in any corner. That was enough for Lightning.

She took a well deserved breather, sitting (not falling), down were she was. She looked up at the dark no-sky, and found an odd beauty in the blackness.

She won. She survived an encounter with an unknown enemy. No assistance, no special weapons, no l'Cie magic, and she won. Despite the close encounters with death, she was begging to like her job. Now she just had to find a way out of there.

"…Li…ning…Lightning…" Her ear buzzed.

"Commander?" She bolted to her feet. It was definitely his voice but she couldn't see any trace of him.

"…Lightning…" He continued, in the back ground there was what sounded like gunshots. It was terrible signal-to-noise. She backtracked her steps. It was still too noisy though. "Light…we need…lower…" And it went dead.

"Commander?" She adjusted the ear piece with her right hand. "Commander?" she repeated. But she wasn't even picking up the ping of his transmission. Looking up into the chasm she thought maybe there was a light source up there. It was just a point though, or rather a firefly.

"Lightning, do you copy?" Ferd said again, except now she could hear him through the noise.

"Commander, it's me."

"Ha!...knew you were still alive. Zen lower it down as far as…." The noise became too much to hear him.

It was a moment before Lightning understood what he meant. The firefly she had seen, began to descend, until it was clearly visible. Instead of a firefly it was a remote drone, attached to a long wire, and rigged with an antenna. Clever.

She began to walk toward it when she stepped on something unusally soft. Lightning was a little shocked when she saw it, but not surprised. She looked up and saw more of them, a lot more. Even with the lanterns they were barely visible.

"Lightning, can you hear me?" Ferd asked. His voice was much clearer.

"Yeah," she acknowledged.

"Good. You're pretty far down. We're going to try to rig a Myriadon to lift you out."

"Commander," Lightning tried to get his attention.

"Sit tight. It might take awhile. We ran into some trouble…."

"Commander!"

Ferd stopped. "Yeah."

"I found them."

Lightning had to wait fifty minutes before the Myriadon arrived, waited in the dark with over sixty corpses.

* * *

Partly by her suggestion, and partly because of Zen's bellyaching they left the rest of the investigation to the PSICOM unit. Lightning didn't have desire to stay down there and go through the remains. Ferd stayed down there behind them as they made their way to the transport. Zen was oddly silent. Mars looked exhausted from fending off the Pulsework soldiers.

Ferd joined them at the transport several minutes later.

"Well they're all accounted for, everyone that was missing."

"All dead right?" Lightning asked.

"Yeah," Ferd acknowledged. "Apparently the rock in the part of mountain is packed with a catalytic crystals. They tend to explode when they're under pressure. They also act as magnetic dynamos."

"That explains the cave-in and the communication distruption. Mystery solved," Zen proclaimed. "Let's go home."

"No it's not." They looked at Lightning. "That's not the only thing that's down there."

"What?" Zen sighed.

"I agree," Ferd said. "Catalytic crystals are usually found in the vicinity of fal'Cie." Ferd looked Lightning in the eye. "Something happen down there Light?"

Lightning just nodded. There was no need to spell out that she had almost been killed. "It didn't like light."

Mars stood up. "So we're going back down there sir?"

"Negative. Whatever it was, we'd have little hope of finding it in the dark. Anyway the mission is complete. I think we can return to base."

Mars and Zen took the cue to board the transport. Lightning held back for a moment. "So what do you think?" she asked her commander.

"A malicious monster that avoids all light, kills sixty people by causing a cave-in? I'm inclined to think instead of not liking light, it doesn't want to be seen."

That made sense. It lined up with everything that happened. But it was weird. "Why would it care about being seen?"

Ferd shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know Lightning. But I get the feeling our worked just got much harder."


End file.
